Description of Historic Place

The Canadian Pacific Railway(CPR) Station at Minnedosa is a one-and-a-half-storey, red brick railway station, built in 1910. It is prominently located at the centre of the town of Minnedosa. The formal recognition is confined to the railway station building itself.

Heritage Value

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Station at Minnedosa reflects the town’s turn-of-the-century position as a regional agricultural centre, and the importance of the railway to the town. In addition to its passenger and freight functions, the station served as administrative space for local railway traffic supervisors and shop managers.

The Minnedosa station is the only surviving example of CPR Special Plan H-1-20-6 in western Canada. Its compact scale and modest design are enlivened by its varied roof line and range of materials.

The station retains its prominent location within the town’s street grid near the corner of Main Street and First Avenue. It is one of the last remaining early components of the railway complex that was once the community’s largest employer. The station has attracted considerable local support for its preservation.

Sources: Heritage Character Statement, Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Minnedosa, Manitoba, October 1992; and Murray Peterson, Railway Station Report 110, Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Minnedosa, Manitoba.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Canadian Pacific Railway Station at Minnedosa include:
-its simple composition, consisting of a one-storey block dominated by a broad-gabled roof enlivened with dormers
-its rectangular plan, interrupted only by the stationmaster’s bay on the track elevation
-its horizontal massing, highlighted by the band of smooth stone along the station’s base, a similar course of stone tight under the eaves, and cut-stone lug sills at the main floor window openings
-its roof line, consisting of a broad-gabled roof with deep overhanging eaves supported on straight, wooden brackets, and enlivened by three prominent roof dormers on each of the track and town elevations, a central hexagonal dormer with a faceted roof, and smaller flanking hip dormers
-its materials, including red brick exterior walls, stone banding at the foundation and eave level and beneath the window openings, and cedar shingles on the roof dormers and gable ends.