Bracebridge Train Station Brings Back Memories For A Lot Of Bracebridge Citizens

1945 Photo of Bracebridge Train Station courtesy of Chris Thompson

CENTENNIAL OF RAILWAY STATION CONSTRUCTION, AND THE COMING LINKAGE TO BRACEBRIDGE - 1885-2015

IF TRAIN STATION HAD SURVIVED, IT WOULD NOW BE 130 YEARS OLD

     If you have read the blogs posted on this site, for any length of time, you would appreciate how much affection I had for the former Bracebridge train station. I spent a lot of time there as a kid, especially after it was closed down, and basically abandoned. In those days, the door of the station was unlocked during the day time, and passengers could lodge themselves in the waiting room, and new arrivals could wait for taxi pick-up, out of the weather; but it was pretty lonely in there despite the fact it still looked like a going concern. Ed Stacey, the former station manager, had been retired by the Canadian National Railway in the early 1970's. I hadn't really explored writing as a future profession, at that point in my life, but if the station had survived, I most certainly would have parked myself there day after day, to capture all the spirits that dwelled there, still coming and going on the ghost trains of the past. The waiting room, as I remember it, amplified the sounds of the coming trains, and I liked to imagine the sounds of the old coal burning locomotives, steaming to a halt in front of the station. It was said by some of those citizens, who did spend some time lodged in the waiting room, after it was closed, they could hear trains coming even if there were none coming down, or up the tracks. Others, in the surrounding neighborhoods, have heard steam whistles and bells off these oldtime trains, long after their last runs through Bracebridge. Train lore is very much a part of the Bracebridge heritage experience. I grew up knowing all the times of the freight and passenger trains, and even when the town clock wasn't keeping good time, the railway schedule helped keep me on mine.  
     I really would like to direct curious visitors, to South Muskoka, especially railway heritage nuts, down to the ridge of high ground, across from the dark flowing waters of the North Branch of the Muskoka River, to see what would now be, a picturesque 130 year old Victorian-influenced train station, in the Town of Bracebridge. But it's gone! Knocked down quickly, one day, and without the full understanding of local citizens, many who were shocked when, on a drive-by or daily stroll, they noticed a neat relic of local architecture, was instead, an unfortunate pile of strewn wood and shingles. There were articles in the paper, about the debate to keep the structure intact, but I know for fact, a lot of folks weren't aware just how imminent the wrecking of history was to be; and if all the approvals and public protest had been properly addressed before being hammered to the ground. There certainly wasn't much to save, except a few boards as reminders of local rail history, and a few sad photographs showing a heap of refuse where an elegant train station once stood. If it had reached its 130th anniversary, damn-it, I guarantee it would have become untouchable, as far as tear-down politics would be concerned. We are far more appreciative of these aspects of history today, than we were back in the 1970's, when it was closed and put on a sort of architectural death row. There is a vintage photograph in the book, on page 250, of "A Good Town Continues," published at the turn of this present century, that references the end of service, but there is no indication, that I can find, when it was actually torn down. The caption reads, "When the Bracebridge CNR station was closed in the early 1970's, passenger trains still provided at least twice daily service in both directions, but rarely did large crowds such as this early photograph regularly congregate on the platform. Use of passenger trains declined rapidly after World War II, as automobiles largely superseded them. Scheduled passenger train service ended in 1990."
     Our local heritage friend, Chris Thompson, of the pioneer Simmons family of Bracebridge, sent us an early photograph of the Bracebridge Train Station, taken from a vantage point of family property abutting the Muskoka River, north of the Hunts Hill bridge. There is no date attached to the photograph. A passing train, at one time in the station's history, left the rails at the front of the building, and destroyed the platform and portions of the building. There are archives pictures of the crashed train, and I may even have one filed somewhere, that I currently can't find.
     In Robert Boyer's book, "A Good Town Grew Here," published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Town incorporation, in 1975, by The Herald-Gazette Press, the well known regional historians notes of the year 1885, that "Alfred Hunt was again Reeve, with S. H. Armstrong, T.M. Bowerman, J.P. Humphries and John Leishman on the Council." He reports that, "This year the survey for the railway north from Gravenhurst was completed, along the line followed to this day. The construction was to mean that Bracebridge fair ground would have to be relocated, a big cut made in the rock south of Bracebridge Falls, a bridge built to cross the falls, and north of there, several streets diverted or closed. (Margaret Street was one to be closed, near where the station was to be built - perhaps that name will be used again for a Bracebridge street)."
     Mr. Boyer writes, "Regardless of inconvenience, the coming of the railway was so generally welcomed that the Council was willing to negotiate. But seemingly there were the usual problems as to crossings, culverts and grades with a new right-of-way being established through a settled community, and these had to be solved. The Council gave permission to the railway company to build their line on Main Street (which runs north from Thomas Street) and this street was diverted accordingly, the village buying the land needed, assisted by the railway company up to $125. The company was also given a length of property 33 feet wide for the station and sidings, with a condition that a round house and turn table be built in Bracebridge (something we have never observed)."
     "The station building was put up in 1885 for the railway by the MacKenzie Brothers - one of whom became Sir William Mackenzie after he had been a leader in constructing the Canadian Northern Railway across the continent, the line that runs through Torrance, Bala Park, and Foote's Bay," noted Mr. Boyer. "During the railway construction in Bracebridge, there was a heavy job to do in making the rock cut and filling in the low ground south of Shier Street. When one realizes that the work was undertaken mainly by hand with teams and wagons to draw materials, it can be seen that there, and all along the line, the construction was accomplished by very hard and steady work. During the year the people of the Village became alarmed, when one evening the workmen, many of them newcomers to Canada, came together up into the main Bracebridge thoroughfare (Manitoba Street). Their wages were in arrears and they were perturbed about their future. But the Village people wanted no trouble and it was arranged that James Boyer, J.P., the Village Clerk, should read to the men the provisions of the 'Riot Act,' which required them all to retire peacefully, and it is to their credit that they understood and withdrew. Their problems must soon have been settled, for no further difficulty has been mentioned."
     Under the heading "1886," on page 38 of his book, Mr. Boyers adds, "The year stands out as the one in which the railway was completed through the Village and on north. The first passenger train ran through Bracebridge on Monday afternoon, June 28th. Here and at other stations to the north, the arrival of the first passenger train was made a day of celebration. Platforms were lined with people waving flags, and at Bracebridge, the firemen's band played suitable airs. The coming of the railway was not regarded with enthusiasm by many of the teamsters, though it is to the credit of those in the Hervie family, that they began arranging better state routes, to run through the District laterally to the railway. The business of the teamsters was an important one up to this time, for merchants and settlers depended on them to carry their freight shipments beyond the railhead."
     "The first excursion on the new railway was arranged by Bracebridge Odd Fellows Lodge, No. 251, a trip from Bracebridge to Powassan, and back, one day in the early summer. This was a notable undertaking for the lodge, which had been instituted only on March 1st, 1886," reports Robert Boyer.
     From that point, the Bracebridge Train Station had many historic arrivals and departures, particularly emotional ones, during the years of both World Wars. The painful farewells of loved ones, and the arrival back home, of soldiers, to their hometown, having the physical and emotional injuries garnered from brutal engagements with the enemy. There were others, killed during the fighting overseas, who arrived back in town laid in rough boxes, to be picked up by the undertaker, for burial by family. I thought about situations like this, watching as the last upright sections of the historic train station were being leveled; and I couldn't help ponder, if at any point, one or more of the Town Council at the time, had even an inkling of just how storied that old building was, in the social / cultural history of Bracebridge. Or was it just an old building that had done its service, and was no longer an asset to the community? Regretfully, it was only seen as an old and tired structure, that might one day burn down, or even collapse causing injury; unless it was to be totally restored. There was no appetite amongst Town officials, to approve any outlay of cash in this regard. Thus, a parking lot, where a charming building used to enhance the townscape, and where thousands of citizens had once stood, to depart for destinations around the globe. It was the familiar building that reminded travellers, they were finally, and safely, home, once again.
     There was nothing so startling to the heart of a youngster, in meditation about conquests to come, as the cutting sound of a train horn, on a bitterly cold January night. There was nothing so pleasing, as the sound of a train horn, on a warm summer night, when the station was bathed in a haunting moonlight, and the Muskoka River was shimmering with enchantment, as if a smaller version of the Historic Hudson River, that author Washington Irving frequently wrote about in his Sketch Books. Bracebridge, of course, was named after one of Irving's books, "Bracebridge Hall." And yes, Irving was the author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It was the first overview out of my mother's mouth, when we drove our sputtering Vauxhall over the iconic Silver Bridge, spanning the Bracebridge Falls, on the day we arrived from the city, to start our new lives.  "This is our Sleepy Hollow." She had no idea, that the town had indeed been named after a book by the same author.