Project Recipient: McAdam Historical Restoration Commission Inc.
National Historic Site: McAdam Railway Station (Canadian Pacific) National Historic Site
Total Project Cost: minimum of $199,030
Parks Canada’s Contribution: up to $99,515

Project Description:

The McAdam Historical Restoration Commission conservation project is part of a multi-year project to restore and rehabilitate the McAdam Railway Station. The project will focus on highly threatened resources including dormers, second and third floor windows, as well as the waiting room and dining room. This work will be done to mitigate the continuing deterioration of the station and stabilize elements threatened by water infiltration. This investment will ensure that the commemorative integrity of this important national historic site is maintained for present and future generations and will support its continued use so that it remains an integral part of the community.

McAdam Railway Station (Canadian Pacific) National Historic Site

The McAdam Railway Station is a large, two-and-a-half-storey, stone, Château-style railway station and hotel building. Built in 1900-1901 and enlarged in 1910-1911, it dominates its immediate surroundings in the small town of McAdam, New Brunswick. The formal recognition consists of the building on its footprint as it existed at the time of designation.

The McAdam Railway Station was designated a national historic site in 1976 because of its association with the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and because it is a rare surviving example of both a station in the Château Style and one which combined a station with a hotel.

Built at the turn of the century, the McAdam station illustrates the beginning of a period of tremendous growth and expansion for the CPR. It is one of the largest, surviving examples of the Château style from the CPR inventory. Built to replace an earlier station, it reflects McAdam’s prosperity and importance as a railway junction and the expectation that this would continue. While its layout is typical of stations of its size in terms of functional arrangements and features, it is distinguished by the incorporation of hotel facilities. No longer functioning as an active station, the building is now maintained by the McAdam Historical Restoration Commission Inc.

Cost-Sharing Program

The National Historic Sites Cost-Sharing Program is a contribution program whereby up to 50% of eligible costs incurred in the conservation of a national historic site can be reimbursed. This year, the Program aimed to assist non-federal owners of national historic sites that demonstrated a real and immediate threat to the commemorative integrity of their national historic site and for which an intervention was required in the short term to maintain the physical integrity of the threatened cultural resource(s). A national historic site possesses commemorative integrity when it is healthy and whole, and when the site’s heritage values are protected, communicated and respected. The Program supports Parks Canada’s mandate of protecting and presenting places of national historic significance, and fostering the public’s understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of these places in ways that ensure their commemorative integrity for present and future generations.

-30-

News Release associated with this Backgrounder.

Government of Canada Supports the Preservation of History and Culture at McAdam Railway Station (Canadian Pacific) National Historic Site of Canada