Description of Historic Place

The Fisher Branch Canadian National Railway (CNR) Station is a two-storey wooden structure built in 1915 and located adjacent to the railway site it once served near the centre of Fisher Branch. The municipal designation applies to the station and the grounds it occupies.

Heritage Value

The Fisher Branch CNR Station is a fine representative of one of the modest, straightforward standardized station designs used in the early 1900s by the Canadian Northern Railway, a predecessor of the CNR, as it expanded throughout southern Manitoba. The structure's orderly, uncomplicated form with little ornamentation is given elegance through the broad expanse of its slightly bellcast, hipped roof broken by large dormers and supported by unfussy brackets. Half devoted to railway traffic, and half to housing the station agent's family, the building recalls the vital roles train stations held for rural Manitoba towns, representing development, growth and links to the larger world. Taken out of service in 1980, the station today remains a vital component in the community as the Rolling Memories Museum.

Source: Rural Municipality of Fisher By-law No. 1071/02, November 6, 2002

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Fisher Branch CNR Station site include:
- the building's Railway Avenue location on a grassed and treed lot at the edge of the local business district, with the former rail line right-of-way to the west

Key elements that define the station's straightforward exterior character include:
- the presence of two distinct volumes under a complex cedar-shingled roof, including a two-storey block with a steeply pitched hip roof interrupted by gabled wall dormers, and a single-storey north wing topped by a sweeping, slightly bellcast gable roof with large overhanging eaves and simple wooden brackets
- the horizontal siding with trim painted a contrasting colour
- the simple fenestration throughout consisting of multi-paned, double-hung rectangular windows with simple surrounds
- the multiple entrances and projecting rectangular telegraph bay
- the modest details, including return eaves on the dormers, etc.

Key interior elements that define the station's function and layout include:
- the formal elongated rectangular plan with simple cube and rectangle forms
- half of the main floor devoted to functional railway aspects, and the other half given to the common areas of the station agent's residence, with the private quarters on the second level
- the basic, enclosed L-shaped staircase with wooden risers and treads
- the practical, no-frills details and finishes, including some wooden doors with intact hardware, wood trim throughout, some wainscotting in the waiting room, etc.