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
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