York Street Station's Cross

York Street Railway Station, Fredericton, New Brunswick

The York Street Railway Station was a Canadian Pacific Railway station located in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Originally it was a wooden structure, built in 1896, and known as Union Station. This was replaced by a brick building in 1923.

When the train service stopped, the station closed down and was finally abandoned in 1993.

The federal Heritage Railway Station Protection Act (1985) prevented its demolition, but with no financial incentive for the owners to take remedial action, the derelict building soon became an eyesore. It would have completely fallen down, were not for the interest taken by Fredericton Friends of the Railway Inc. Photos linked below have been copied from the website used by the lobby group.

In 2009 Alcool NB Liquor announced plans to capitalise on the station's heritage and convert the building into a retail liquor outlet under a 20-year lease from August 2010.

The cross

Of particular interest is the arrangement of five red clay tiles forming a cross on the gable end of the station porch.

There's no evidence that the station was ever used for religious purposes. Even so, its shape is unmistakable and it is not unreasonable to assume that way back in 1937, as soldiers of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion passed under the portico on their way to support the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, one of the last sights of their home town would have been this cross.

More artillery and infantrymen (90th Field Battery, R.C.A.) passed under the same red cross in 1939 to join other Commonwealth troops in Europe as World War II developed, long before the United States joined in. We'll never know how many hearts might have been touched by the sight of this red cross but we do know that at least seventy of these Frederictonians (37 Army, 3 Navy, 30 Air Force) would never see it again.

Red Cross Society?

The arrangement of these five red tiles has clear similarity with the symbol of the Red Cross Society. But is there any connection?

The Canadian Red Cross in Fredericton haven't confirmed whether there might have been a medical or training centre at the station. Neither have they said it was ever a Red Cross blood collection centre and/or an emergency operations centre run by them in times of flooding from the St. John River, just 1 km to the north-east of the station. Such use of the station building does seem unlikely.

Decoration?

If it wasn't placed there in a religious context and if it has no connection with the Red Cross Society, was it simply fixed as a decoration?

In writing for the Fredericton Heritage Trust, Ted Jones describes '...a small "decorative" red tile cross in the lower gable...', and we're happy to concede that the York Street Railway Station's cross was never intended to be anything more than decoration.

But we're left with a niggling doubt...

If you know the background to the cross on that wall, please email us.

• Fredericton station in 1978. Photo by Art Clowes
• Fredericton station in 2002. Photo by Steve Boyko
• December 2009. Final photo of the cross in situ, 2 December 2009. Photo by Tim Scammell
• December 2009. Awaiting refit. Photo by Tim Scammell
• January 2010. The gable end and right 'leg' are the only survivors of the original porch. This says something about the immortality of the cross. Photo by Tim Scammell
• 2013 liquor shop
• March 2014. Google's Streetview