Description of Historic Place

The Canadian National Railways Station at Joliette is a two-storey, brick railway station, built in 1901. It is located in a commercial and industrial area in the town of Joliette. In 1957 the station was moved 100 metres west of its original location to make room for a roadway viaduct. The formal recognition is confined to the railway station building itself.

Heritage Value

The Canadian National Railways Station at Joliette reflects the development of the town of Joliette. The Great Northern Railway (GNR) built the station in 1901, two years after it received a bonus from the town to support construction of an Ottawa-Montréal-Québec line. After the Canadian Northern Quebec Railway (CNQR) acquired the line, Joliette became a divisional point, with great implications for the city’s economic, industrial and social history.

The Joliette station’s simplified Tudor style is consistent with the picturesque aesthetic adopted by the GNR for its railway stations. Its high-quality design and brick construction reflect the GNR’s desire to project an image of permanence and stability. In 1927 the station was enlarged at the east end, creating a symmetrical composition.

Sources: Heritage Character Statement, Gare du Canadien National, Joliette, Québec, March 1995; Gino Gariépy et Lise St-Georges, Bergeron Gagnon inc., Railway Station Report 236, Gare du Canadien National, Joliette, Québec.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Canadian National Railways Station at Joliette include:
-its form and massing, consisting of a two-storey, rectangular block with a projecting operator’s bay, covered by a hip roof enlivened by dormers;
-its roof, consisting of a hipped main section, large hipped-gable dormers at either end of the track side and a series of simple, eave-level, gable dormers along both track and town sides;
-features typical of early-20th-century railway stations, including hipped roof, rectangular plan, platform canopy supported on wood brackets and projecting operator’s bay;
-its continuous platform canopy, extending from the second-storey window-sill level on three sides of the building, and supported on large, wood brackets;
-its simplified Tudor style, evident in its dormered and gabled roof, half-timbered gabled ends and stone accents;
-its domestic scale and design, evident in its massing, roof line, and detailing;
-its red brick cladding;
-its stone accents, consisting of a shallow stone foundation wall, stone lintels and sills at openings and three continuous, horizontal stone bands at mid-window and lintel level on the ground floor and at mid-window level on the second storey;
-the surviving interior plan of its ground floor comprised of the agent’s office in the centre of the passengers’ area, a baggage room and a freight room;
-surviving original interior finishes, including lower walls finished with tongue-and-groove paneling and upper walls finished in plaster on the ground floor, walls finished with vertical boarding on the second floor, wood moulding, wood window and door trim, wood benches.