Montreal Question

[unimaginative2]

I don't know if anyone on this board would be able to help, but I'm trying to find out if there were any drawings or plans of the original design of Montreal's Central Station from when construction first started in 1927. There must have been an earlier design, since the current design is obviously not of that era.

 

[goodboys]

Try doing a google search; here's what I found:

www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/...are_1a.htm

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

I can't say that I have seen many of early drawings of the station. What I do remember seeing were always designs in a modern style similair to what was built.

I would suggest trying a search through www.railpictures.net which is probably the best site I know of on the internet for North American rail photography. Most of the pictures are more recent and user submitted but often you come across rather interesting historical ones so perhaps they might have something there.

You could check out La Grande Bibliotheque and search through their records and see what you could find. If there was something that is only available at the library just let me know and perhaps and I can dig it up and make copies the next time I am there.

 

[Christopher DeWolf]

there was a late-20s era proposal for a very grand union railway station and office tower, but the railroads never got their act together and montreal contined to have three main railway stations.

unfortunately, i have no idea where to find a rendering of this proposal.

 

[adma]

I'm just going by recollection, but I believe Central Station wasn't opened until around the beginning of WWII--presumably depression, etc, was a factor. And the present office towers didn't spring up for another couple of decades.

So if the aesthetics are different, it's the same reason why the Bank of Nova Scotia at Bay + King is pared-down compared to the original John Lyle proposal. (Or why Bay-Adelaide won't look like its 1989 incarnation.)

 

[adma]

And keep in mind that until the late 50s, Central Station was basically a utilitarian facility atop railyards--sort of a "Warden subway" experience in the middle of Montreal (although Carroll Meeks praised its "functionalism" in his book on rail stations).

At least they invested in the passenger concourse--which, for its 1937-World's-Fair aesthetics, remains one of the most perplexingly taken-for-granted interior public spaces in Montreal...

 

[janschot]

I'd try looking at the book "Montreal Metropolis, 1880-1930". It's the companion to an exhibition that the CCA put on several years back. They probably have a rendering of the project that Mr. DeWolf describes.
Also, the "Cities of Canada" at the McCord museum a couple of years back had a painting which showed the rail cut where the Central Station was later built. On this website you can see the top half of the painting, unfortunately leaving out the train infrastructure: www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/e...ge=accueil

Actually, the exhibition has toured, and is now at the Rooms in St. John's. Here's a link to the painting I mention above, which turns out to have been painted in 1954 by Albert Cloutier. No evidence of the train station.
www.therooms.ca/images/ar...83.139.jpg
Thumbnails of the other cities are at the main page:
www.therooms.ca/artgallery/cities.asp

 

[officedweller]

Central Station

Here's an image and text from the link posted above by Goodboys.

So what you're looking for is the plans that were shelved in 1916 by Canadian Northern - predecessor to CN.
Or revised CN plans initiated prior to the stock market crash in 1929 (which could be the existing station).

Central Station c. 1945
C.N.R. freight station, Dorchester Street, Montreal, QC, c. 1945,
photographer: unknown. Notman Photographic Archives,
McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal. MP-1976.262.30

In the very early 20th century, when Canadian Northern built a trans-Canadian railway system to compete with the CP network, it needed a way of reaching the heart of Montreal. All access was blocked to it, however. Then, in 1911, the company surprised everyone with the announcement that it would be digging a five-kilometre tunnel under Mount Royal. It also planned to build a long viaduct in the southwest part of the city, with tracks in a trench extending to the upper town, where they would meet up with the tracks from the tunnel. There the company would build a railway station, along with an enormous office complex.

The tunnel was completed in 1916, but because of financial difficulties the company was able to build only a temporary station; the rest of its plans were shelved. In 1918, the federal government took over Canadian Northern, and in 1923, Grand Trunk. The new railway company it created, Canadian National (CN), decided to pursue and even expand on the project launched by Canadian Northern. It excavated a huge area, but the crash of 1929 put real-estate projects on hold. The viaduct leading to the downtown area was completed, however, as well as a new railway station (1938 to 1943), above the tracks. Cars and trucks were provided with separate access ramps, a distinctly modern touch. Inside, passengers reached the fifteen tracks via escalators from the concourse.

 

[unimaginative2]

Re: Central Station

That's the one that was built, starting in 1938. I'm looking for the design that was shelved after the 1929 crash.