Windsor Station (Montreal)

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The Gare Windsor is a former railway station in the Canadian city of Montreal. It is located in the central district Ville- Marie on Rue Peel. The building in the Romanesque Revival style was built from 1887 to 1889 under the direction of Bruce Price and was the Montreal Central Station of the Railway Company Canadian Pacific Railway. Since 1993, he is no longer served by trains, it is instead used as an office and hotel building since an extensive renovation. The train station is a listed building and is since 1975 a National Historic Site.

History

The Canadian Pacific Railway, founded in 1881 (CPR ) introduced in November 1885, the transcontinental railway to British Columbia finished. The first trains ran in June 1886 from Montreal Gare Dalhousie. This station was small, and was unfavorable, so the CPR decided to build near the Square Dominion a larger station and to move its headquarters there. The design contract was awarded to the American architect Bruce Price. He was inspired by Henry Hobson Richardson and designed a representative building in the Romanesque Revival style. The name of the station derives from its location on the Rue Windsor, which was later renamed Rue Peel.

Construction began in 1887, the first trains ran on 4 February 1889. Growing transport volumes made ​​several enhancements to the station required. 1900 was matched to Prices building, a section of the building along the Rue Osborne (now Rue de La Gauchetière ). Another tract was built from 1909 to 1914 along the Rue Craig (now Rue Saint -Antoine ). This tract contained the immigration office and a waiting room, which was reserved in the first years of exclusively Chinese.

In 1978, the national railway company VIA Rail passenger traffic of the CPR and the Canadian National Railway ( CN). From the summer of 1979, the most previous CPR distance trains ran to and from the main train station Gare Centrale former CN. In 1981, suburban trains only wrong Vaudreuil - Dorion - Rigaud after. Train operation was finally in 1993 all set. This was due to the construction of the ice hockey stadium Centre Bell on the track field, so that the Gare Windsor was completely separated from the rest of the rail network. On the opposite side of the stadium, the new Gare Lucien- L'Allier emerged as the starting point of the AMT commuter lines. 1996 moved the headquarters to its CPR Calgary. In 2009 she sold the station to the company Cadillac Fairview.

The station in 1900

Main entrance (2008)

Part of the former station concourse (2008)

Building

Today the CPR continues to use parts of the former station. Among other things, here are the premises of the Railway Police, the operations center for Québec and southern Ontario, the Office of the Vice President, Property Management and the company archive. Also housed here is the Canadian railway arbitration. The rest of the building was rebuilt and now serves as office, hotel and restaurant complex. The former station concourse is open to the public; there are entrances to the subway, to the Bell Centre and Montreal underground city.