10 March 2011

Moose Jaw Rail Station Had Elegant Past

Moose Jaw Saskatchewan - Around Moose Jaw, the word "station" usually meant that wonderful old building at the foot of Main Street, with its clock tower and a waiting room full of memories.
 
It was not only the place where Moose Javians waited for trains, sent off telegrams, shipped parcels, and bought money orders, it was also a favourite dining place.
 
The CPR Dining Hall, located in Moose Jaw's third station, opened in November 1921 and was soon renowned for good food and service.
 
Old-timers remembered its elegance.
 
During the prosperous 1920s when rail travel was in its golden age, the station dining room was every bit as classy as the CPR dining cars and the same high standards prevailed.
 
Like the diners, all woodwork and furnishings in the restaurant, located in the south wing of the station, were finished in walnut.
 
The blue shade of the wainscotings' glazed tile was repeated in the drapes at the large south-facing windows.
 
The entire floor was done in cork tile.
 
Snow-white linens covered the tables and the cutlery, glassware, and china sparkled.
 
The CPR spared no expense in the kitchen, said to be "second to none on the entire Canadian Pacific Railway Company's systems."
 
"While not as large as the kitchens of the big hotels operated by the company", ran one report, "the equipment is complete and in some respects superior to several of them".
 
The kitchen's pride and joy was a dishwashing machine, probably the first in Moose Jaw.
 
Cups and saucers, plates and platters, washed and scalded, were transferred to steam heated cabinets until required, then they were moved onto steam-heated serving tables.
 
Large crockery containers sitting in boiling water kept gravies, soups, and cooked vegetables at the right temperature.
 
All kitchen refuse was incinerated in a special furnace in the basement.
 
The restaurant had its own bakery with the latest electrical appliances:  an oven, bread provers (warming units for dough), a dough mixer, and a whipper for whipping, stirring, mashing, and mixing a variety of foods.
 
The new dining hall was the third CPR restaurant to serve the travelling public and Moose Jaw residents since rail construction reached here in 1882.
 
The first passenger trains ran without the heavy dining cars so the CPR built eating places at its divisional points.
 
The first dining hall at Moose Jaw was a two-story brick building "painted quite a pretty shade of cream."
 
The town may have been only a frontier outpost then, but in the dining room there were white linen tablecloths and napkins, crystal goblets, and silverware, all the hallmarks of CPR dining service.
 
In 1898, the building was destroyed by fire after a spark from a passing locomotive landed on the roof.
 
In 1899, the CPR built its second station at Moose Jaw, which incorporated hotel facilities and a dining room.
 
The design of the new red brick station complex was "chateau," featuring steep roofs, gables, and turrets, a style much admired by CPR president William Van Horne.
 
Contemporary accounts called the restaurant "elegant" and mentioned the solid oak furnishings, chairs upholstered in patent leather, hardwood floors, Brussels carpet, and six-light acetylene gas chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling.
 
An upsurge in passenger traffic in the early 1920s, sent the CPR on a building spree when Moose Jaw's "chateauesque" station was replaced by a new station and restaurant in Italianate systole.
 
A generation later, the plane, automobile, truck, and multi-lane highways eliminated the need for most railway stations.
 
Across Canada demolition of stations began and those converted to serve other purposes were often mutilated almost beyond recognition.
 
The CPR station at Moose Jaw was lucky.
 
In spite of a decade of decay, it stands as a superb example of heritage restoration and adaptive reuse.
 
Now it's the classiest liquor store in the West, but the ambiance of the train station is still there to the delight of old railroaders and train buffs who love to drop by even if it's just for the memories.
 
In his book on the history of Canada's railway stations, Canadian author Don Brown writes:  "The station may be a thing of the past... but it is a past that should never be forgotten, even though the train doesn't stop there any more."
 
Leith Knight.