Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Brandon

The

Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Brandon (1911-12) is a two-storey stone-and-brick building in the Beaux-Arts

Classical style, with a flat roof and smaller one-storey wings to either side. It stands between Pacific

Avenue and the railway tracks, in a prominent location at the end of 10th Street in the City of Brandon.

The provincial designation applies to the building itself.

The

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Station, Brandon is valued primarily as one of the three largest and most

impressive CPR stations extant in Manitoba, and as a symbol of Brandon's importance in western Canada

generally and as administrative, freight, and repair headquarters for both the main and regional lines

in the CPR's western sector. Such First Class stations, located at important business and divisional

points, symbolized and contributed to the dignity and wealth of both the railway and the city. The station's

important location at the end of 10th Street - characteristic of Beaux-Arts planning - makes it a focal

point and visual anchor in the urban landscape of downtown Brandon.

Source: Manitoba Heritage Council

Minute, September 6, 1984.

Key elements that define the site

character of the CPR Station, Bandon include:

- the setting of the building on the site: the steep slope

down to the tracks, so that the basement storey is at near-grade on the sides; the front (south) facade

flush with the sidewalk; the relationship with the railway tracks at the rear

Key elements that define

the exterior heritage character of the CPR Station, Bandon include:

- the overall size and massing: the

basically square plan with recessed wings to either side and the projecting central section on the front

facade; the flat roof

- the construction of Tyndall stone for the main floor and buff brick for the second

floor, with Tyndall stone being used also for the prominent central bays of the entrance facade and for

the window sills and pilaster bases and capitals of the second floor

- the Beaux-Arts classical stylistic

vocabulary: the two-storey pilasters flanking the doors; the raised, stepped central parapet with clock

and date; the single-storey pilasters between the windows; the elegant cut stone window mouldings with

prominent keystones on the first floor; the rusticated basement storey; the Doric entablature over the

entrance front; the parapet with recessed panels

- the fenestration and door openings

Key elements that

define the interior heritage character of the CPR Station, Brandon include:

- some classical details,

such as ceiling mouldings, in the entrance vestibule of the building

- original window and door casings

where extant