1928 – Canadian National Railway Station, Edmonton, Alberta

A classical style railway station for Canadian National, finished externally in red brick and Manitoban Tyndall limestone. The main part of the building featured a central two-storey high waiting room lit with skylights, a dining room, 40-person restaurant, smoking room, ladies’ waiting room, and white oak benches. The upper level contained divisional offices around the perimeter of this space. The floor was finished with two-foot terrazzo tiles laid alternately with light and dark marble chips.

The architect John Schofield oriented this grand building at the opposite end of 10th Street to the Hotel Macdonald, another CNR landmark in Edmonton. He designed the structure so that extensions could be made as demand grew, and placed it end-on to the track, as opposed to the usual parallel position. Opened on St. Patrick’s Day, 1928, appropriately as the architect was from Ireland, with thousands of people cramming into the rotunda for an evening dance.

In 1951 renovations added a third storey to the main building, and a two-storey east wing with a basement constructed for office space, and new terminal sheds of concrete, steel, and brick. Sadly demolished to make way for the CN Tower, completed in 1966.

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