If buildings could speak… - A historical and architectural tour of Vaudreuil-Dorion

 

Former Canadian Pacific train station (Dorion station)

The Dorion Station located at 60 de l’Église Street. © Sébastien Daviau - Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Main facade of the former Canadian Pacific train station. © Bernard Bourbonnais - Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Canadian Pacific railway workers in front of Vaudreuil-Station on November 7,1898. In the background, a water tower to fill the steam locomotive’s reservoir. © Joseph W. Heckman - Exporail, Canadian Pacific Railway Company Fund, P170-A_1384.
Plans of the Canadian Pacific’s Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue station dated April 16, 1887. Drawings are signed by architects John William Hopkins and Edward Colis Hopkins. © Source: Christiane Lefebvre, « Gare du Canadien Pacifique (ancienne gare Vaudreuil), Ville de Dorion, Québec ». Rapport sur les gares ferroviaires, préparé pour la Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada, vol. 1, June 1994, p. 65.
Arrival of young boy scouts at Vaudreuil-Station during the jamboree held at Les Chenaux from August 20 to 28, 1951. © Collection Mr. Luke De Stéphano, 2018.
Railway stations of Grand Trunk (on the left) and Canadian Pacific (on the right) in Vaudreuil-Station, around 1900. © Collection Mr. Luke De Stéphano, 2018.
Grand Trunk railway station at Vaudreuil-Station in 1912. In the background, Canadian Pacific’s second water tower. © Collection Mr. Luke De Stéphano, 2018.
Bridges of the Grand Trunk and Ontario and Québec Railway (Canadian Pacific) between Île Perrot and Vaudreuil-Station (Dorion), around 1900. © Collection Mr. Luke De Stéphano, 2018.
The Canada Hotel in 1912 (61 Valois Street). An important testimony of Vaudreuil-Dorion’s railway history. © Collection Mr. Luke De Stéphano, 2018.
Level crossing on Saint-Charles Street in Dorion, in 1925, before construction of the viaduct in 1971. On the left side, the gatekeeper’s hut. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Centenaire de Dorion Fund, M01.
Section of 1971 viaduct on the corner of Saint-Henri Avenue and Valois Street. In the background, the collective artwork Nourrir ses rêves II and the former Canada Hotel. © Sébastien Daviau - Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Aerial view of the former Canadian Pacific station located in Old Dorion. © Pierre Lahoud - Canada Research Chair in Urban Heritage ESG UQAM.

place DORION AND VAUDREUIL-STATION

Current name Dorion station

Original vocation Train station

Address 60 de l’Église Street, Vaudreuil-Dorion

Construction date 1887

Architect, Firm or Contractor Attributed to John William Hopkins and Edward Colis Hopkins

Architectural type Institutional and non-residential

Status Institutional property (Réseau de transport métropolitain - RTM - Exo)

CANADIAN PACIFIC TRAIN STATION LOCATED IN VAUDREUIL-STATION (1887)

Built in Vaudreuil1 in 18872 for the Canadian Pacific Railway, the construction of the train station is attributed to architects John William Hopkins (1825-1905) and Edward Colis Hopkins (1857-1941)3. It was located in an area of the city that was formerly named Vaudreuil-Station. This train station was part of a series built for the new railway line connecting Montréal to Toronto. This railway section was established by the Ontario and Quebec Railway in 1886-18874. Officially inaugurated on August 18, 1887, this railway was integrated from the very beginning to the Canadian Pacific Railway system through signed agreements in 1884, between both companies as perpetual leases5. Two years later (1889), Vaudreuil-Station became a terminal for local Canadian Pacific Railway commuter trains running between Montréal and Vaudreuil6. In November 1892, this company extended its railway network towards Rigaud, after the signing of a perpetual lease with the Montreal and Ottawa Railway7. In 1982, the Canadian Pacific Railway, wanting to focus exclusively on freight transportation, transferred the Montréal-Vaudreuil-Rigaud commuter line to the Société de Transport de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal (STCUM)8 which was later replaced by the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport (AMT), followed by the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM / Exo) in 2017, a public institution that had acquired the former Vaudreuil-Station in 19989. Now known as the Dorion Station, the building was rented the following year by Arc-en-Ciel Vaudreuil-Soulanges, a community organisation that supports and assists with mental health issues10. This train station is the oldest still standing in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area and is unequivocally a treasure of railway architectural heritage.

Test your knowledge

In what year did Vaudreuil-Station change its name to Dorion station?

Before The former Canadian Pacific train station, around 1925. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Centenaire de Dorion Fund, M01.

After Dorion train station. © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.

References

  1. When citing this heritage tour, please do so as follows: Sébastien Daviau, Jean-Luc Brazeau, and Édith Prégent. If buildings could speak. A historical and architectural tour of Vaudreuil-Dorion. Vaudreuil-Dorion, City of Vaudreuil-Dorion / Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017, <https://www.circuitvd.ca>, accessed [insert date].

  2. Note that at the time of construction, this area was part of Vaudreuil. Dorion was founded two years later, on December 30, 1890. For many years, the building will bear the name of Vaudreuil Station. Along these same lines, Canadian Pacific schedules indicated Vaudreuil as their destination (and not Dorion). (Claire Sabourin et al. Dorion, au fil des ans. Livre souvenir du Centenaire de Dorion 1891-1991. Dorion, Ville de Dorion, 1991, Div -4).

  3. Exporail, Canadian Pacific Railway Company Fund. Christiane Lefebvre, « Gare du Canadien Pacifique (ancienne gare Vaudreuil), Ville de Dorion, Québec », Rapport sur les gares ferroviaires, vol. 1, préparé pour la Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada, June 1994, p. 51 et 65.

  4. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Hugh David Lumsden Funds, P429, P429,S2,P1. Hugh David Lumsden. Ontario & Quebec Railway Eastern Extension Plan of Right-of-Way through the County of Vaudreuil Province of Québec, May 11, 1886; Bureau de la publicité des droits de la circonscription foncière de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Registre, 337307, m. not., Anne Asselin, November 24, 1998 (registered November 26, 1998). Sale by Canadian Pacific Railway Company to the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT); Supreme Court of Canada judgment in the case of Gordon Dorward de Salaberry et al. acting on their behalf and on behalf of all shareholders of Ontario & Quebec Railway Company against Canadian Pacific Ltd. in Wotherspoon v. Canadian Pacific Ltd.,[1987] 1 SCR 952, 1987 CANLII 2807 (SCC), June 25, 1987. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from the Canada Legal Information Institute, <https://www.canlii.org>; Ron Brown. The train doesn't stop here anymore. Toronto, The Dundurn Group, 3rd edition 2008, p. 72; Ronal S. Ritchie. Canadian Pacific's Montreal Lakeshore switch services. Calgary, British Railway Modellers of North America, vol. 1, 1990, p. 3.

  5. Announcement by Canadian Pacific of the opening of the short line between Montréal (from Dalhousie Station) and Toronto, La Minerve, August 15, 1887; Announcement by Canadian Pacific indicating the schedules of the new short line to Toronto "The New Short Line". Montreal Gazette, October 1, 1887, p. 6; Anonymous. Indenture of Lease. The Ontario & Quebec Company to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Montreal, Gazette Printing Company, January 1884, 19 p.; List of railway lines acquired and leased by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1881 and 1892 in Anonyme. The Statistical Yeard-Book of Canada - 1894. Tenth Year of Issue. Ottawa, Department of Agriculture / Government Printing Bureau, 1895, pp. 225, 447-448; Vaudreuil-Soulanges Land Registry Office, Register, 337307, M. Not., Anne Asselin, November 24,1998 (registered November 26, 1998). Sale by Canadian Pacific Railway Company to the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT).

  6. Canadian Pacific ad showing train schedules « Suburban » between Montréal (Windsor Station) and Vaudreuil. Montréal Gazette, July 5, 1889, p. 2.

  7. List of railway lines purchased and leased by the Canadian Pacific between 1881 and 1892 in Anonymous. The Statistical Yeard-Book of Canada - 1894, Tenth Year of Issue. Ottawa, Department of Agriculture / Governement Printing Bureau, 1895, p. 225; Exporail, Fonds Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Christiane Lefebvre, « Gare du Canadien Pacifique (ancienne gare Vaudreuil), Ville de Dorion, Québec », Rapport sur les gares ferroviaires, préparé pour la Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada, vol. 1, June 1994, p. 49; Lorraine Auerbach Chevrier et Raymond Séguin. Histoires de Rigaud. Rigaud en histoires. Rigaud, Cercles d’histoire de Rigaud, 2009, p. 83.

  8. Sale by the Canadian Pacific Railway to l’Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT). Bureau de la publicité des droits de la circonscription foncière de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Registre, 337307, m. not., Anne Asselin, November 24, 1998 (registered November 26, 1998).

  9. Sale by the Canadian Pacific Railway to l’Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT). Bureau de la publicité des droits de la circonscription foncière de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Registre, 337307, m. not., Anne Asselin, November 24, 1998 (registered November 26, 1998).

  10. Testimony of Mrs. Micheline Paquin, director of Arc-en-Ciel Vaudreuil-Soulanges, as told to Sébastien Daviau, on March 14, 2018 during a phone conversation.