Formal Recognition Type

Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land

Heritage Value

Gordon G. Pike Railway Heritage Museum has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Harbour Grace due to its historic and aesthetic value.

Gordon G. Pike Railway Heritage Museum has historic value because of its association with early railway history in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Harbour Grace branch line was conceived in the 1881 Blackman contract and started in 1883 for the bondholders of the bankrupt Newfoundland Railway Company. Completed in 1884, it is likely around this time the current station was built. The station passed to the control of the Reid Newfoundland Company when it took over control of provincial railway interests in the 1890s and operated until service on the branch line ended in 1984.

Gordon G. Pike Railway Heritage Museum has aesthetic value as an excellent example of a style that became common railway stations in the early 1900s. The style is exemplified by a large hip roof with deep overhangs, a multi-bay façade with multiple doors, the use of shiplap and clapboard siding, and a dominant horizontal orientation. While it was painted yellow and green by the Reid company, an earlier colour was uncovered to be a traditional ochre red. The interior of the railway station has aesthetic value because of its largely intact finishes. The Reid colour scheme is continued from the exterior and built-in benches and a small ticket window speak to its use as a railway station.

Source: Town of Harbour Grace Council Meeting January 10, 2006; Town of Harbour Grace Regular Public Council Meeting, September 20, 2022.

Character Defining Elements

All those elements that reflect the age and style of the building, including:

-mid-pitch hipped roof with projecting eaves;
-wooden construction;
-narrow wooden clapboard with wide cornerboards;
-window sizes, shapes and fenestrations;
-2/2 windows with small sills and eared corners;
-protruding telegraph bay with double windows;
-plank doors;
-door locations and openings;
-one storey construction;
-size, shape and orientation of building, and;
-red ochre exterior colour.

Community

Harbour Grace

Municipality

Town of Harbour Grace

Civic Address

Station Road

Construction (circa)

1881 - 1884

Builder

Reid Newfoundland Company

Style

Rectangular Long Façade