Canadian Pacific Railway Brampton station - Date/Photographer unknown.

21 March 2012

A New Lease on Life for Old Train Station

Brampton Ontario - Brampton's century-old Canadian Pacific Railway station appears to have as many lives as a cat. It has certainly used up a few. Second chances have brought the heritage building back from the brink of oblivion on more than one occasion since it was built way back in 1902. When it had outlived its original use, closed by CP Rail in 1969, its fate embarked on a roller coaster ride that would last the next 40 years.
 
Originally built on Queen Street West between Park Street and West Street, the Brampton station hit its peak for passenger service in the 1940s.
 
In 1970, a final train symbolically pulled away from its platform in a farewell bid that officially declared the building out of service. CP used it for storage from that point on until, in 1982, finally designated as a heritage building under the Ontario Heritage Act, it was moved to Creditview Road to be used as a garden centre.
 
But in 1988 the property was sold as part of the parcel of land that would become Lionhead Golf Course. An historic train station didn't fit in with the plans, so the building was abandoned, forgotten, and left to languish.
 
Twice over the years, demolition permits were requested by two different owners, CP in 1977, and Kaneff Properties in 1998 after the building had decayed almost beyond recognition.
 
But the old girl had life in her still, and even when, in later years, the structural supports of the abandoned station became weak, the spiritual support for this cherished building was always strong. Public outcry, both times, saved her.
 
Now, the historic railway station has made its last stop in Mount Pleasant Village, one of Brampton's oldest buildings married with one of Brampton's newest communities, and it has finally, gloriously, been revived and restored.
 
Well, not quite a true restoration, more of a representation of the original, heritage purists will tell you, but they are none-the-less thrilled to see the beloved station returned to the grandeur it once enjoyed.
 
"It is very much a success story," said Michael Avis, vice-president of the Brampton Historical Society. He said he had to come to accept the fact that "certain concessions had to be made" if the building's pieces were ever to be saved from storage, but the final product is, to 99.9 percent of those who see it, the original station.
 
The building had been packed away for more than a decade, taken apart in 1998 in a desperate, last-ditch effort to remove it from the path of a wrecker's ball.
 
The Brampton Historical Society, led by the late Paul Hunt, and the Brampton Heritage Board, saved the station back then, and the City of Brampton has now brought it back to life.
 
In 2010, the pieces of the old station were brought to Mount Pleasant with a $30,000 boost from developer Mattamy, and for the past two years, with financial assistance from government infrastructure funding, have been fitted together and rebuilt, re-creating parts that no longer were viable, cleaning up and re-using the parts that were.
 
"This is the original brick and the original stone," pointed out Davis Falsarella, the project manager for the City of Brampton, which oversaw its resurrection and reconstruction. "It's rebuilt using modern technology and insulation,"
 
The station is now part of a combination public library, outdoor recreation area, and elementary school for the community around Bovaird Drive and Creditview Road. It was the architectural inspiration for, and overlooks, Mount Pleasant Square, which also contains four pieces of public art by Ron Baird that celebrate the importance of the railroad in Brampton's history. "It is the focal point of the square," Falsarella said.
 
And the sounds of the railway can still be heard from its reconstructed platform, now coming from the Mount Pleasant GO station located on the opposite side of the square.
 
The station is about a foot taller, and a bit more brick was needed to tie it into the buildings to which it is now attached. It's the same width, although the walls aren't as thick. The original had a double course of bricks forming the exterior. The best bricks were chosen for the reconstruction and the walls are now made of a single layer of brick. Lime mortar was used in the re-build.
 
The original Credit Valley sandstone base had to be carefully rebuilt by artisans using hammers and chisels. "This is all hand-tooling," Falsarella said of the labour-intensive work of fitting the originally 16-inch thick stones together and thinning them to allow four inches of insulation to fit behind.
 
"The building, in more ways, is better than the original," Falsarella said, agreeing the end product is not the recreation of the CPR building to "it's true form", but the best that could be done under current building codes. The city's reconstruction was carefully guided by copies of the original architectural drawings and archival pictures. Like the original, the roof is slate, the gutters copper, the doors are made of white oak, but unlike the originals, which were painted, these are protected by a "top-notch" finish.
 
"Obviously, we're trying to keep this building for the next 100 years," Falsarella said.
 
The new roof brackets aren't just for show, they actually hold up the roof, he pointed out. The originals could not be used because they were deemed to be "structurally inadequate" for the building. "No engineer in his right mind would approve them," Falsarella said. So, they were replicated, using the old decorative brackets as patterns for the new ones.
 
The windows are new, but modelled after the high-arching originals, and what was once the breezeway that stood open to the elements is now a fully glassed-in view from the inside out to the reflecting pond in the square.
 
Commercial grade flooring covers the interior rooms (the original floors were maple), which will be used primarily as community rooms. Hot chocolate and other concessions will be sold through what once might have been the ticket window on the east end of the station.
 
"When I first saw the building I was in awe," said Michael Seaman, a founding member of the Brampton Historical Society. "It was like seeing a long-lost friend coming back to life. There it was, not tired and deteriorating as I had known it before, but proud, beautiful, and re-purposed."
 
Seaman, who is now director of planning for the Town of Grimsby, said that, after seeing the station "standing proudly once again as a community landmark", he now believes in miracles.
 
HOW WE GOT HERE
 
Just 15 years ago, no one, not even the most optimistic of local historians, could have imagined that the dilapidated, sagging, shell that once was Brampton's beautiful heritage CPR station would ever be anything more than a pile of old, unwanted bricks.
 
"I never thought I would see it," said Paul Whilloughby, co-chair of the Brampton Heritage Board. "I had come to the realization that I would never see even a representation of it. I was so afraid it was just going to be landfill."
 
Abandoned and neglected for more than a decade, the building was virtually condemned by the city in late 1997. Decay was eating away at the structure's bricks and mortar, threatening to collapse the roof and crush the memories still clinging tightly to its walls. The station's owner at the time, Kaneff Properties Ltd., saw nothing worth saving, and requested a permit to demolish.
 
All this, despite it being designated of historical significance under the Ontario Heritage Act, and a heritage preservation easement registered on the building, an easement requiring the owners to look after and maintain it.
 
They didn't.
 
But there was a groundswell of support in the heritage community to save the building. The late Paul Hunt, who would help found the Brampton Historical Society as part of his push to preserve the station, appeared at city council with a message and his cheque book, handing the city $500 of his own money to stop the station from becoming landfill.
 
"I challenge everyone within the sound of my voice to contribute to this fund," Hunt declared.
 
He helped form the Save Our Station (S.O.S.) Committee and pushed for a solution other than demolition, which had been scheduled for 1 Jul 1998.
 
And so it was in July, 1998, brick by brick, beam by beam, and stone by stone, a group of volunteers in an overgrown field on Creditview Road painstakingly dismantled the entire building, all by hand. There was no wrecking ball, or backhoe, in sight, because this wasn't the demolition that had been asked for. They numbered the stone, drew up what seemed to be optimistic plans for its reconstruction, and carefully transported everything to Bob Crawford's property on the outskirts of Norval. Storage, they called it, with future use pending.
 
If it would really ever be reconstructed was in serious doubt at the time it was dismantled and, indeed, for more than a decade after, but those who believed it should be, never lost hope. There was interest expressed, ideas for re-use, but none panned out. Still, the S.O.S. Committee, which spawned the birth of the Brampton Historical Society (BHS), continued to search for a home for the station.
 
"Over the years we hoped, and hoped, and then hoped some more, but we all tried to be realistic, as well," Brampton Historical Society Co-chair Michael Avis said. "To see it come to fruition after so many years, it kind of makes you pause and reflect. Something worked."
 
Seaman noted it was perseverance and passion that saved the station, and many hope Paul Hunt's name will be included in some way in the finished product as a reminder of how he contributed. Michael Seaman, also a founding member of the Brampton Historical Society, said he believes that heritage preservation in Brampton rose to a higher level thanks to the battle to save the station. Founders of the BHS started out trying to save one building, and in the end, did something much more than that. "I always say that the Brampton Historical Society was established to rebuild a train station, but in the end they built something far more valuable, a community culture of conservation that has led to many other heritage successes in Brampton that would never have been imagined back in 1998 when it was dismantled."
 
Pam Douglas.