Description of Historic Place

The C.P. Rail Station House is a Municipal Heritage Property located in the Town of Rockglen on a .3 ha lot adjacent to the CPR right-of-way at the end of 1st Street North. The property features a two-storey, wood-frame railway station that was built in 1928. Relocated in 1982, the station now sits 182 metres north, and turned 180 degrees from its original site.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the C.P. Rail Station House lies in its association with the railroad and the railroad’s central role in Rockglen’s historical development. In 1926, the CPR completed its Assiniboia-to-Coronach branch line and surveyed a new townsite adjacent to “Valley City,” a loose collection of businesses and residences that had sprung up on the anticipated route of the new line. Most of Valley City’s residents subsequently relocated their buildings to the CPR site, which was incorporated as the Village of Rockglen in 1927. The railway station was built the following year and for over three decades was Rockglen’s principal transportation hub and the anchor of its commercial streetscape. After closing the station in 1962, the CPR used the building as a workers’ residence until 1973. In 1982, a local historical society purchased the building and moved it to its present location, intent on conserving an important symbol of community history.

There is additional heritage value in the station’s architecture, which illustrates the CPR’s “Standard 14A Station” design. This slightly revised version of the “Standard 14 Station,” which had been introduced in 1914, was one of two principal designs employed by the CPR during its rapid western Canadian expansion in the 1920s. Distinguished by bell-cast hipped roofs, bracket-supported overhangs, and prominent gable-roofed cross-dormers, 32 Standard 14A stations were built in Saskatchewan during this period.

Source:

Town of Rockglen Bylaw No. T-85.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the C.P. Rail Station House resides in the following character-defining elements:
-elements that express the historical connection between Rockglen and the railroad, including the station’s location adjacent to the rail right-of-way on a commercial street; and features of the building that are typical of small-town CPR railway stations of the period, such as the long, rectangular plan, brownish-red paint scheme, multi-pane double-hung wood windows, shake roofing, and wooden drop siding and shingle cladding;
-elements that are distinctive of the Standard 14A Station design, including the bell-cast hipped roof, bracket-supported overhanging eaves, the gable-roofed dormer with half-timbering, and the pattern of window and door openings.