Description of Historic Place

The Saskatoon Railway Station is a two-storey, Chateau-style railway station, built in 1907-08 and enlarged in 1919. It is prominently located on Idylwyld Drive in downtown Saskatoon. The formal recognition consists of the building on its footprint at the time of designation.

Heritage Value

The Saskatoon Railway Station (Canadian Pacific) was designated a national historic site in 1976 to commemorate the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Line. The station exemplifies smaller depots built by the line during its prosperous years.

The Saskatoon station illustrates the early-20th century period of tremendous growth and expansion for the CPR. Built at a time when Saskatoon was the regional centre for three major railway companies, it reflects the intense rivalry between companies and the CPR’s aspiration to become the predominant railway in Saskatoon. The Saskatoon station is a good example of the streamlined Chateau style favoured by the CPR after 1900 for both larger divisional stations and smaller depots. The building is now privately owned and operated as a restaurant and offices.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minute, June 1976.

Character-Defining Elements

The key elements that relate to the heritage value of the Saskatoon Railway Station include:
- its picturesque, Chateau style, as expressed in its steep, hipped roofs and polygonal tower,
- features typical of early-20th-century railway stations, including: a prominent tower; a hipped roof; wide, overhanging eaves with brackets; dormer windows; a prominent chimney; decorative detailing including pressed/turned metal roof finials and rolled ridge caps; and a variety of colour and texture in the building materials,
- the variety of exterior materials used to provide texture and colour, in keeping with the picturesque aesthetic, including: yellow face-brick; white Tyndall stone on the plinth, stringcourses, sills, lintels, corner quoins, and eave bracket corbels; white Tyndall stone to accentuate the tower, including the ashlar face stone, large eave brackets and date block; cedar-shingle roofing; pressed and turned sheet metal work; and timber eave brackets,
- surviving original mullioned wood window units at the transom lights and south end dormers, and surviving original wood frames throughout the building,
- surviving original remnants of the interior plan and features, including: interior partitions, original finishes, transom lights, full-height ceilings, and windows,
- the building’s relationship to its site, including the tracks to the west, and its visual links to Idylwyld Drive and to 22nd Street to the north and east.