Home / Accueil

Carbonear Railway Station Site Municipal Heritage Site

Carbonear, Terre-Neuve et Labrador, A1Y, Canada

Reconnu formellement en: 2008/12/01

View of the front and right facades of Carbonear Railway Station Site, Carbonear, NL.; HFNL/Andrea O'Brien 2009
Carbonear Railway Station Site, Carbonear, NL
View of the train tracks at the Carbonear Railway Station Site, Carbonear, NL.; HFNL/Andrea O'Brien 2009
Carbonear Railway Station Site, Carbonear, NL
View of the left and front facades of Carbonear Railway Station Site, Carbonear, NL.; HFNL/Andrea O'Brien 2009
Carbonear Railway Station Site, Carbonear, NL

Autre nom(s)

s/o

Liens et documents

Date(s) de construction

Inscrit au répertoire canadien: 2009/07/07

Énoncé d'importance

Description du lieu patrimonial

The Carbonear Railway Station Site is located directly off Water Street, Carbonear, and includes the former Carbonear Railway Station building, a one-storey, hipped roof, wooden building. It also features the remnants of the train tracks (bed, rails and wooden sleepers and ties), which start at a point parallel to the front of the station building and stretch as far as Pike’s Lane. Along this narrow stretch of land also sit a locomotive, the remnants of the concrete footings of the former freight shed and several track lever switches still fixed in their original places. The municipal heritage designation includes all buildings, structures and artifacts, as well as the footprint of the station building, the stretch of land from the front right corner of the station building to Pike’s Lane, confined to that land area containing the remnants of the train tracks and freight shed, and the lever switches, plus a buffer of one meter from the outermost portion of these features in either direction.

Valeur patrimoniale

The Carbonear Railway Station Site has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Carbonear because of its historic, architectural and aesthetic values.

The Carbonear Railway Station Site has historical value because it survives from the period in Newfoundland history when rail was a primary means of transportation, before the Trans-Canada Highway was completed in the mid-1960s. The railway stimulated economic development in the region and provided many local residents with employment. Carbonear’s first railway station building was constructed around 1898, but around 1915 the construction of a new branch line from Carbonear to Bay de Verde meant plans for a bigger building were required. This second building was designed by John Penney Powell of Carbonear, who was chief engineer for Reid Newfoundland Limited, and completed by 1919.

The Carbonear Railway Station building is architecturally significant because it exemplifies railway stations erected during the heyday of the Reid Newfoundland Company. It is indicitive of the Reid Newfoundland style of railway station architecture and is readily identified as a building owned by this company. The station is a single-storey, rectangular, wooden building with a low-pitched hipped roof, multi-paned windows, panelled doors, clapboard sheathing, and wooden trims and cornerboards. The large eaves extending over the platform at the front of the building once acted as a weather guard for passengers waiting at the station, and are a telltale sign of the building’s original function. The brick chimney indicates the building’s heat source, and its buff yellow and green paint scheme is also typical of period station buildings.

The station building is enhanced by the railway infrastructure which still exists in proximity to it. Although the station has been closed since 1984, with the cessation of the last railway branches in Newfoundland, there are still remnants of the railway track along its original route, stopping at the front of the station. These include sleepers, rails and ties (upon which sits a locomotive), the “stops” at the end of the track directly in front of the station, the remnant concrete footings of the freight shed, and the track lever switches still firmly fixed in their original positions.

The landmark station building, combined with the railway infrastructure, make the Carbonear Railway Station Site a distinctive feature along Water Street, Carbonear’s historic, waterfront commercial centre. Its aesthetic value lies in this distinctiveness, and in its capacity to evoke the period when rail transportation was key in Carbonear and the region.

Source: Town of Carbonear Regular Council Meeting December 1, 2008.

Éléments caractéristiques

All original features which relate to the age, style and original function of the building including:
- wooden construction;
- low-pitched hipped roof;
- overhang and projection of roof;
- narrow wooden clapboard sheathing;
- wooden trims and cornerboards;
- dimensions and rectangular plan of building;
- dimensions and placement of platform at the front of the building;
- style, dimensions and placement of wooden, multi-paned windows;
- style, dimensions and placement of panelled wooden doors;
- brick chimney;
- yellow and green paint colour scheme;
- orientation of building towards the railway tracks and Water Street;

Other physical railway elements at the site:
- original route of railway, rail bed;
- extant ties, sleepers, and rails of the railway track;
- “stops” at the end of the track in front of the station building;
- original track lever switches, in position;
- remnant concrete footings of former freight shed;

And the site’s location in Carbonear’s historic commercial centre.

Reconnaissance

Juridiction

Terre-Neuve et Labrador

Autorité de reconnaissance

Municipalités de TNL

Loi habilitante

Municipalities Act

Type de reconnaissance

Terre, structure ou édifice patrimonial municipal

Date de reconnaissance

2008/12/01

Données sur l'histoire

Date(s) importantes

1919/01/01 à 1919/01/01

Thème - catégorie et type

Économies en développement
Communications et transport

Catégorie de fonction / Type de fonction

Actuelle

Loisirs
Centre touristique

Historique

Transport ferroviaire
Gare ou autre installation ferroviaire

Architecte / Concepteur

John Penney Powell

Constructeur

s/o

Informations supplémentaires

Emplacement de la documentation

Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
1 Springdale Street
St. John's, NL A1C 5V5

Réfère à une collection

Identificateur féd./prov./terr.

NL-4522

Statut

Édité

Inscriptions associées

s/o

RECHERCHE DANS LE RÉPERTOIRE

Recherche avancéeRecherche avancée
Trouver les lieux prochesTROUVER LES LIEUX PROCHES ImprimerIMPRIMER
Lieux proches