Heritage Railway Station
Which site was the heritage designation of Windsor Station (Montreal) from Jun 1990 to Feb 2009?
Windsor Station ( Montreal ) Windsor Station ( ) is a former railway station in Montreal , Quebec , Canada . It used to be the citys Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR ) station , and served as the headquarters of CPR from 1889 to 1996 . It is bordered by Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal to the north , Peel Street to the east , Saint Antoine Street to the south and the Bell Centre to the west . Windsor Station was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1975 , and was designated a Heritage Railway Station in 1990 , and a provincial historic monument in 2009 . The walls are gray limestone from a quarry in Montreal . Outside , the columns reach up to wide . History . In 1887 , the Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR ) began to build a railway station in Montreal , which would serve as its headquarters , three years after the completion of the Dalhousie Station in 1884 . The Windsor Station project was entrusted to New York City architect Bruce Price , who chose a Romanesque Revival style for the building . Price had to submit four versions of his plans to satisfy the treasurer of CPR , before the project was accepted . It was constructed at a cost of $300,000 CAD , and the first trains departed February 4 , 1889 . It was known as the Windsor Street Station , named for the street on which it was located , Windsor Street ( today Peel Street ) . It was expanded for the first time from 1900 to 1903 , and again from 1910 to 1913 by Canadian architects . The third expansion , in 1916 , included a fifteen-storey tower which dramatically altered Montreals skyline . The project was entrusted to the firm of brothers Edward and William Maxwell . Windsor Station formed an integral component of Dominion Square as a diffuser of passenger traffic and as a central terminus for other modes of transportation . The building skirted Windsor Street ( today Peel Street ) and Osborne Street ( today Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal ) between Donegani ( located halfway between Osborne Street and Saint Antoine Street ) . The building had four floors up to Osborne Street and five floors at street-level on Donegani Street because of the slope of the terrain . In July 1970 , CPR announced its plans to demolish Windsor Station and build a 60-storey office building on the site . The building , which was going to cost C$250 million , was to be designed by the same architects as New York Citys World Trade Center . After several delays the project was abandoned . Via Rail was created in 1978 and took over the responsibility for operating intercity passenger trains of both Canadian National CN and CPR . During Vias first months there was no operational change for CPR or CN trains , as they used their respective crews , routes , equipment and stations . However , by the summer of 1979 , the integration process began , and most of Vias former CP trains that used Windsor Station were consolidated at CNs Central Station , including CPs former transcontinental passenger services such as The Atlantic Limited and The Canadian , both of which were also renamed to be bilingually appropriate . Via Dayliners ( Budd Rail Diesel Cars ) operating between Windsor Station and St . Sacrement station in Quebec City via the CP route north of the St . Lawrence River continued to use Windsor Station until 1984 . Amtraks daily Montreal-New York City train ( the Adirondack ) continued to use Windsor Station until 1986 . Both the dayliners and the Adirondack were switched to Central Station . Local services to Ottawa via Montebello and to Mont-Laurier , both of which had been transferred from CPR to Via , continued to use Windsor Station until they were cancelled in 1981 . After intercity passenger service was removed , Windsor Station continued to be a commuter rail terminal for the STCUMs ( now the RTMs ) Montréal/Dorion-Rigaud suburban train ( now Vaudreuil-Hudson line ) . In 1999 , service to Blainville ( now Saint-Jérôme line ) was added , and in 2001 , service to Delson ( now Candiac line ) . In 1993 , construction began on the Molson Centre ( now Bell Centre ) , a hockey arena to replace the Montreal Forum . The arena site was located immediately west of Windsor Station on the trackage which served the station platforms , resulting in the historic station being severed from the rail network . The Molson Centre opened its doors on March 16 , 1996 , and the new Lucien-LAllier Station was opened at the western end of the arena structure to replace the now-closed suburban train terminal at Windsor Station . Until 2001 , the new train station was called Terminus Windsor , but this was changed to reduce confusion with the original station building and to indicate a link to the Lucien-LAllier metro ( subway ) station which is below the station building . It is still possible to walk through the Bell Centre to connect with Windsor Station and the Lucien LAllier metro station . Windsor Station , and now Lucien-LAllier Station ( known in French as Terminus Lucien-LAllier ) , are at the eastern end of CPRs Westmount Subdivision . It served as CPs downtown west end train terminus . Its counterpart downtown east end terminus was Place Viger . Windsor Station also housed the headquarters of CPR and its parent company Canadian Pacific Limited until after a corporate restructuring in the mid-1990s , the railway abandoned or sold most of its trackage east of Montreal , and it focused its activities in Western Canada . In 1996 , CP moved its headquarters to Gulf Canada Square in Calgary . Today . Since 1993 , the structure is no longer connected to the rail network . It was sold by CP to Cadillac Fairview in 2009 ( thus removing it from the jurisdiction of the Heritage Railway Stations Act ; consequently , it was classified as a provincial heritage site that same year ) . Also located in the station is the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration . The rest of Windsor Station has been redeveloped into an office complex and houses some restaurants and cafés . The interior concourse , which is open to the public , can be rented for private and public events . The lower floor is part of the RÉSO and connects the Bonaventure metro station with the Lucien-LAllier commuter rail station as well as the Bell Centre . The 13 terminal tracks running into Windsor Station and the overhead canopy have been removed , and replaced by a public square .