York Street Train Station Added to Local Historic Places Register

Fredericton City Council has officially added the former York Street Train Station to the Fredericton Local Historic Places Register. Council established the Register in 2003 to raise awareness of historic places and encourage their conservation. It is administered by the City of Fredericton Preservation Review Board

The two-storey station was constructed by the Rhodes-Curry Company of Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1923 for the Canadian Pacific Railway. It replaced the original wooden station that was built 1869. It not only ushered in a new era of passenger traffic in Fredericton but eventually became the hub of an industrial enclave, anchored by the Hartt Boot & Shoe Company, at what was then the outskirts of town.

Under the auspices of the Fredericton Railway Company, the new railway link promised to open communication between Fredericton and the world and provided year-round access to the main shipping port at Saint John.

Before the Second World War, the York Street train station served both the CPR and the CNR, and was known as Union Station. The station’s operation was reduced to freight service after passenger traffic ceased in the 1960s. The CPR withdrew its remaining operations from the building in 1990 and sold it to the New Brunswick Southern Railway, a subsidiary of J.D. Irving Ltd., in 1995. It was protected from demolition by the federal Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act.

In September 2009, Alcool NB Liquor reached an agreement with J.D. Irving Ltd. to lease the property for a new liquor store. The interior brick walls will remain intact, and the historical detail will be incorporated in the interior décor.