The second CPR station at the foot of Granville Street didn’t make it until its 15th birthday. It was replaced in 1914.
From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Even if you don’t love the architecture—and I am a fan of anything that’s gothic and grim and wears a turret—you’ve got to admit that the former Canadian Pacific station would be an amazing addition to our current landscape.
Designed by Edward Maxwell in the railway’s early Chateau style, the station dominated the foot of Granville Street with its two massive turrets—one round and one octagonal—and an arched entranceway made from Calgary limestone.
But all this gorgeousness didn’t save the building. Deemed too small for burgeoning Vancouver, the station was demolished in August 1914. It was replaced by the current Waterfront Station, which against all odds, continues to exist.
Fortunately, the New Westminster station was treated more kindly. It’s still at 800 Columbia, formerly a Keg and now operating as a Kelly O’Bryans Restaurant.
© Eve Lazarus, 2022
In the first photo, the downwards sloping ramped road in the foreground still exists today. It is west of Cordova and Granville Street intersection and goes down to an underground parking lot, to give a relative sense of location of where the second CPR station was once situated.
I love the splendour of these old buildings, Thank you for never disappointing!
So hard to fathom how one could take down such a magnificent building. Back then our approach to grand buildings was the same as our approach to old-growth trees – just knock em down.
I always look at it this way – if the 2nd CPR station hadn’t been too small, they never would have built the 3rd CPR station (I refuse to call it “Waterfront”!!!! – it still says over the front “Canadian Pacific Railway”!) and it’s a real stunner of a building.
When I lived in the Fairmont Apartments fifty years ago my next door neighbour, Miss Sutherland, showed me a 1909 post card of the second CPR station. She was a British teenager when she arrived in Vancouver that year, and sent the card to her relatives in England. It was later returned to her. She described the excitement of arriving at the station, and mentioned that in the Ladies Room they had Pears Soap. She was impressed.
I have seen so many photos over the years of the exterior, but never one of the interior of the station. I’ve always wondered what it looked like.
Thanks Eve, I love the old photos and your comments! Keep up the good work.
Sigh, The second Hotel Van and this second. No other use for it was considered? Hardly if one know the rudderless civic planning this town has endured