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Train Station › Project tour – Rooms and exterior

The Ladies’ Waiting Room

This spacious room was entered by the station door closest to Victoria Street, and was reserved for woman and children. The door to the station basement was also located in this space, as the ladies’ waiting room had only a crawl space as its foundation.

View to basement

In the restoration, a door was cut into the previously inaccessible luggage room, now used as office space.

Door cut Waiting room

The Ladies’ Washroom

A tiny corner sink and partitioned toilet compartment comprised the original ladies’ washroom. Since neither the sink nor partition could be saved, I decided to maximize space in this unisex washroom by removing the partition and installing a new sink and toilet, sympathetic to the Arts and Crafts design. The original slate baseboard was retained.

Floorless Slate baseboard

The General Waiting Room

This waiting room, the same size as the ladies’, was reserved for men and youths. The stationmaster’s office door opened into this space, and its front window looked up to St. George Street. Its rotten floor was also replaced by new hardwood, same as the original.

Waiting room before Waiting room after

The Men’s Washroom

This washroom had been modernized in the early 80s so nothing remained of its original fixtures. Here I made my second non-restoration decision, and that was to turn the room into a small kitchen suitable for use by a commercial tenant. The sink is vintage and the tile surround was made in Annapolis Royal.

Men's washroom before Vintage sink

The Luggage Room

The luggage room had two sets of sliding doors…one set opening directly opposite the tracks, and the other opening to the station yard (see doors section). The room featured the same high ceilings as the rest of the station, but its walls were sheathed with tongue and groove boards. These were in good condition and simply repaired and repainted.

Luggage room before Luggage room after

For heat retention and security reasons, we built a set of matching (but non-sliding) doors for the outside and inserted them into the exterior door openings.

Exterior doors

The Stationmaster’s Office

This narrow little office had a bay window that allowed the incumbent to look both up and down the tracks. A solid oak desk was built into the bay, and opposite was the brass grille of the ticket window, with an oak shelf below. A “Dutch door” opened into the gentlemen’s waiting room.

Dutch door

The stationmaster’s office walls did not reach the ceiling — they were finished in oak trim with a glass transom below. Although the office had been partitioned off some time in the 60s, its walls were not damaged and the trim had been retained.

Office after

The floor had rotted, but luckily the desk was still in good condition and we were able to save it.

Stationmaster’s desk

The Exterior

The salient exterior feature of the train station is the slate roof with overhanging eaves. Almost a hundred years old, the roof was nonetheless repairable, although it took a year to source the replacement slates and the willing craftsmen!

Repairing the chimney Repairing the roof

The old chimney was rebuilt and the original exposed wooden rafters under the eaves simply repaired and painted their original buff.

Rafters

Doors, window frames and the concrete foundation were painted in a rust red shade, consistent with early DAR colour schemes.

Paint job sep