14 July 2010

We All Knew it Had to Come Down

Officials photographed on 9 Aug 1935 at York Street Station:  From left
front row: Fredericton Mayor W.G. Clark, CPR president Sir Edward Beatty,
Premier R.R. Dysart, Bank of Montreal president Sir Charles Gordon,
Steel Company of Canada president Ross McMaster, Royal Bank of
Canada president M.W. Wilson, and Senator Smeaton White - Provincial
Archives New Brunswick Harvey Studio Photograph P14-71.

Fredericton New Brunswick - Crews have demolished the baggage shed behind the York Street Train Station in Fredericton as they prepare to begin work to rehabilitate the historic original structure.
 
A local contractor, M.E. Phillips and Son Construction Ltd., completed demolition of the 1940s baggage shed Tuesday morning.
 
The train station, built in 1923, will be rehabilitated as part of a new development that will see a new building added on.
 
The site will be home to an NB Liquor store.
 
The federal cabinet approved the work this spring, contingent on approval from professionals at the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
 
"The demolition work was approved by Parks Canada's Historic Sites and Monuments Board and we had obtained the necessary demolition permit from the City of Fredericton," said Geoff Britt, spokesman for J.D. Irving Ltd., the company that owns the station.
 
"The original 1923 train station has not been disturbed."
 
Britt said the next step for the contractor is to prepare the site for construction. He said crews will next spread a two-metre-high pile of soil on the property. This soil will remain in place for about three weeks.
 
Britt said the contract to build the NB Liquor store is out to tender. Construction is scheduled to begin in August.
 
J.D. Irving Ltd. has said the annex is necessary to make the refurbishment of the train station financially viable.
 
The building languished for years, drawing the ire of many. At one point, the building became such an eyesore that Mayor Brad Woodside called for the building to be fixed or levelled.
 
The head of a citizens' committee that has long lobbied to see the building rejuvenated said Tuesday he greeted the demolition with mixed emotions.
 
"It is kind of sad. The building looks so small now," said Tim Scammell, president of Fredericton Friends of the Railway Inc.
 
"We all knew it had to come down. Now the real work can start."
 
Shawn Berry