Canadian National Railway Station
Heritage Railway Station of Canada
Macamic, Quebec
Rear elevation
(© Cliché Ethnotech inc, 1993.)
Address :
Station Street (next to the junction of routes 101/111), Macamic, Quebec
Recognition Statute:
Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 52 (4th Supp.))
Designation Date:
1994-01-07
Dates:
-
1910 to 1910
(Construction)
-
1916 to 1950
(Significant)
Event, Person, Organization:
-
Canadian National Railway
(Organization)
-
National Transcontinental Railway
(Organization)
Other Name(s):
-
National Transcontinental Railway Station
(Other Name)
Research Report Number:
RS-183
Description of Historic Place
The Canadian National Railway (CNR) station is located on Station Street in the centre of the village on a site where it was relocated in 1916. It is a compact 1 ½ storey picturesque station with prominent roof dormers.
Heritage Value
The CNR station at Macamic was designated a heritage railway station for its historical contribution, its site integrity and its community support.
Macamic’s station and the NTR with which it is associated have played a major role in the colonization of Quebec’s Abitibi Region. The station, built in 1910, was moved into the centre of Macamic in 1916 from its original site three miles to the west. Since then, it has been both a centre of local economic activity (forestry and agriculture) and a local gathering point.
Design of this station conforms to Standard Plan F, a station design developed by the Grand Trunk Railway at the end of the 19th century and subsquently employed by the NTR. Featuring both station facilities and a stationmaster’s residence, it was intended for use in small communities. The Macamic station is the oldest example of this standard design in Canada, although it has suffered alterations that somewhat distort its original proportions.
Heritage value of the Macamic station resides primarily in those features of its design that conform to Standard Plan F as it was employed by the NTR, specifically its design, functional layout and details. It also resides in the station’s materials as well as its presence as a landmark and socio-economic force within its community.
Source: Heritage Character Statement, Canadian National Railways Station, Macamic, Quebec, October 1993. Heritage Assessment Report RSR-183, 1992.
Character-Defining Elements
Character-defining elements of the Macamic Canadian National Railway Station include:
its irregularly cruciform footprint with a long rectangular body broken by the shallow projection of a telegrapher’s bay on the trackside, and the more prominent projection of a peak roofed shed on the townside, its compact 1 ½ storey massing under a medium-pitched hipped roof with hip-roofed dormers over the bay and waiting room and a prominent chimney, its compact scale and proportions, the inherent balance in its vertical definition, the rhythmic placement of its apertures and brackets, the interest in its roof definition from all four perspectives, the smooth aesthetic integration of special railway features such as a projecting telegrapher’s bay and broad eaves to provide passenger shelter, its picturesque details: dormers, paired windows, brackets, pairing of dormer and bay to form a tower, its simple, cost-effective wood materials, its platform frame construction technology, any and all original fabric, furnishings and finishes inside the station, in particular the surviving ticket wicket and counters, the building’s dual function as residence and station, legibility of its original functional layout with waiting room, stationmaster’s office and baggage facilities as well as the kitchen and living room of the residence on the ground floor and four bedrooms above, continuation of long term patterns of access and circulation, the overall integrity of the building’s form, plan, material, and detail.