Miami Railway Station (Canadian Northern) National Historic Site of Canada
Miami, Manitoba
Miami Railway Station (Canadian Northern)
(© Jeannette Greaves, 2020)
Address :
Highway 23, Miami, Manitoba
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1976-06-15
Dates:
-
1889 to 1889
(Construction)
Other Name(s):
-
Miami Railway Station (Canadian Northern)
(Designation Name)
Plaque(s)
Approved Inscription: Manitoba
This rare surviving station illustrates the use of standard designs for railway structures to reduce costs and increase the pace of line expansion across the Prairies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Miami station was part of the Northern Pacific and Manitoba Railway from 1889 to 1901, when it was acquired by the Canadian Northern. After crippling debts forced the nationalization of the transcontinental line in 1917, the Miami station operated as part of Canadian National Railways until 1973. Today, the combined station, warehouse, and residence still stand in their original setting.
Description of Historic Place
The Miami Railway Station is a small, wooden storey-and-a-half railway station located beside the tracks in the agricultural community of Miami, Manitoba. The formal recognition consists of the building on its footprint as it existed at the time of designation.
Heritage Value
The Miami Railway Station was designated a national historic site to commemorate the development of the Canadian Northern Line and because it is a rare surviving example of a Canadian Northern railway station.
Formed in 1899 by William Mackenzie and Donald Mann as a result of the amalgamation of two small Manitoba branch lines, the Canadian Northern Railway grew quickly to become a transcontinental railway system. The present station is typical of many standard design frame depots erected by the Canadian Northern across the prairies. It reflects the brief period of prosperity enjoyed by Miami during the railway boom of the early 20th century. The station operates as a rail museum during the summer months.
Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minute, June 1976.
Character-Defining Elements
The key elements that relate to the heritage value of the Miami Railway Station include: its location directly besides the rail line; its compact plan, typical of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) standard plan, including a station agent’s office and a waiting room on the main floor; and a station master’s residence on the upper floor, and a freight wing on the east side; features typical of the CNR stations of the period, including a prominent, hipped roof; and a projecting station master’s bay at platform level; its frame construction and simple, utilitarian design, with minimal detailing; its hipped roof with a central gabled dormer on the track side.