Dalhousie Station () is a former railway station in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. Built in 1884, the building stands at the corner of

Notre-Dame Street Notre-Dame Street (officially in ) is a historic east–west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from Lachine, Quebec, Lachine to the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal, island in Poi ...

and

Berri Street Berri Street (officially in ) is a major north–south street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Berri Street links De la Commune Street in the south and Somerville Street in the north. The street is interrupted between Rosemont Boulevard and J ...

in what is now known as

Old Montreal Old Montreal (, ) is a historic List of neighbourhoods in Montreal, neighbourhood within the List of municipalities in Quebec, municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is b ...

. As the oldest surviving railway station building in Montreal, Dalhousie Station was named after

George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie General George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, (23 October 1770 – 21 March 1838), styled Lord Ramsay until 1787, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He served as the Governor of Nova Scotia from 1816 to 1820, Governor Genera ...

, who served as the

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...

from 1825 to 1828. Although the terminal location was originally purchased by the

Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway The Canada, Canadian province of Quebec formed the ''Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway'' (QMO&OR) in 1874 to link those cities since private companies, without the usual subsidies from the Federal Government of Canada, could not get ...

, all construction was done by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

after it purchased the QMO&O in 1882. Consequently, Dalhousie Station thus became the original eastern terminus for CP Rail.Tom Grumley
"Montreal's Major Rail Terminals"
Since 2004, the station building has been the home of the

Cirque Éloize Cirque Éloize ( iʁk elwaz is a contemporary circus company founded in Montreal in 1993 by Jeannot Painchaud, Daniel Cyr, Claudette Morin, and Julie Hamelin. Its productions combine circus arts with music, dance, technology, and theatre. "Éloiz ...

Operation

The first all-Canadian transcontinental train left Dalhousie Station bound for

Port Moody Port Moody is a city in British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It envelops the east end of Burrard Inlet and is the smallest of the Tri-Cities, bordered by Coquitlam on the east and south ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, on June 28, 1886, at 8:00 p.m. Five years after its opening, Canadian Pacific opened a second Montreal terminal,

Windsor Station Windsor station or Windsor railway station may refer to: Australia * Windsor railway station, Brisbane * Windsor railway station, Sydney * Windsor railway station, Melbourne Canada * Windsor Station (Montreal) * Windsor station (Nova Scotia) * Wi ...

, in February 1889. It had better access to rail routes to the United States, southern Quebec, and southern Ontario, and a more convenient location on the west side of town. After a new, shorter line to Ottawa via Rigaud opened in February 1898, the transcontinental route was redirected to Windsor Station. Dalhousie Station was superseded by the grander

Place Viger Place Viger was both a grand hotel and railway station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, constructed in 1898 and named after Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of the city. Although combined stations and hotels were common in the United Kingdom in the la ...

Station, a block to the north of Dalhousie Station, in August 1898.

Design and redevelopment

Like other early CPR stations, Dalhousie Station was designed by British-born architect

Thomas Charles Sorby Thomas Charles Sorby (1836 – 15 November 1924) was an English-Canadian architect. Born in Wakefield, England, he emigrated to Canada in 1883, where he worked for much of the time in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. In England, as s ...

. Dalhousie Station is architecturally notable for its combination of stone and brick and its high windows.Brown, Ron
The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
chapter 5 (3rd ed., p. 85; 4th ed., p. 95). Note however that much of the referenced sentence is false. The station was built by the CPR; only the ''location'' of the station had been inherited from the QMO&O. The station is now part of a remodeled Dalhousie Square, completed in 2004, which links Old Montreal and the Faubourg Quebec residential district. Dalhousie Square was designed by Robert Desjardins of the City of Montreal and includes a sculpture by

Jocelyne Alloucherie Jocelyne Alloucherie, (born February 8, 1947) is a Canadian sculptor who explores the relationships between sculpture, architecture and photography through installations. Career Born in Mont-Apica, Quebec, she spent many of her early years in ...

entitled ''Porte de jour.'' The redesigned square received honour from the

Canadian Society of Landscape Architects The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (; CSLA-AAPC) is the national organization representing 1600 List of landscape architects, landscape architects in Canada's ten provinces and three territories. The organization was founded in 1934. Its m ...

in 2006.

References

External links

Station building and tracks in Google Maps Street View
{{coord, 45.5115, N, 73.5518, W, display=title Canadian Pacific Railway stations in Quebec Railway stations in Montreal Railway stations in Canada closed in 1898 Railway stations in Canada opened in 1886 Buildings and structures in Old Montreal 1886 establishments in Quebec 1898 disestablishments in Quebec