The "then" photo here was likely taken in the 1950s, not long after the Nelson to Penticton line was converted to diesel-electric locomotives. This took place primarily in 1953. The water tower which stood south of the depot is now gone. Both photos were taken from what would have been the railroad yards at the station, north of the station, looking more or less south.
The station is still in very good condition and upstairs, in the banquet room, there is still memorabilia and pictures of when it was a Canadian Pacific Railway Station. Outside one may find an old railway speeder and a line shack which was moved to the site.
Built in 1900, not only is it one of the few wood framed stations which have survived in BC, but it is also the oldest survivor which has not been relocated. Today the old tracks of the Columbia and Western Railway which run past the station are long, save for a short section at the depot, gone but the track bed is now the Columbia and Western Rails to Trails trail, which is part of the Trans Canada Trail, the world's longest hiking and biking trail. The station has been designated a heritage railway station by Parks Canada.
The depot saw service as a passenger depot until 1964. In January of that year permission was given by the federal government to discontinue passenger service on the line from Nelson to Penticton. Freight service continued for more than two decades. On October 7, 1987, the CPR requested permission to abandon the line between Castlegar and Midway, permission being granted in September of 1990. The tracks each way from Grand Forks were removed in 1991, but the tracks at Grand Forks were to remain for many more years to service local industry. Freight, primarily lumber products and abrasives from the old
Granby Smelter slag piles, was shipped via connections to the Great Northern (now BNSF) tracks leading south from Grand Forks.
In 1897, the City of Grand Forks was incorporated under the Speedy Incorporation Act, with John Manly as the first mayor. His home, and many of the early city officials’ homes are listed in the Boundary Museum&'s Heritage Walking Tour brochure.
The CPR built the first railroad into the Boundary Country in 1899. The station, the
oldest CPR station in B.C. still in its original location, is located in West Grand Forks, in what was originally the City of Columbia. This building is now home to "The Station Pub".
From the City of Grand Forks
Canadian Pacific Railway Station
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) station at Grand Forks, British Columbia was built by the Columbia and Western Railway in 1900. It is a modest 1 ½ storey frame building with a steep gabled roof and “Swiss” details located at 7654 Donaldson Dr.
HERITAGE VALUE
The CPR station at Grand Forks has been designated a heritage railway station because of its historical significance, aesthetic quality and importance in the community.
The former Columbia and Western Railway station at Grand Forks, later owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), was constructed in 1900. At the time it was built, the community of Grand Forks was expanding into a robust distribution and refining centre for Boundary District ore and agricultural produce. The station symbolizes the strategic position of Grand Forks within the Boundary District, the intense rivalry between competing rail lines to obtain the district's mining business, and the importance of rail transportation to the development of a mining industry in British Columbia's southern interior at the turn of the century. The station is a modest but attractive frame building with decorative "Swiss Chalet" elements, a style common among Columbia and Western stations of the Boundary District in the early 1900s. Grand Forks station is one of the few remaining examples.
The heritage character of the Grand Forks station resides in those features which relate to its original design - on the exterior its simple form, roof shape and finish materials and on the interior remnants of original layout and finish. The heritage value also lies in the visual relationship between the station and its setting.
From Historic Places Canada
