Toronto Union Station (1858)

Armstrong's 1859 painting of the first Union Station

Toronto’s first Union Station was a passenger rail station located west of York Street at Station Street, south of Front Street in downtown Toronto. It was built by the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) and opened in 1858.

Union Station as seen from Toronto harbour in 1867

View of first Toronto Union Station, circa 1860s

History

Railways arrived in Toronto in 1853, when the first passenger train left Toronto from a wooden depot located near Bay and Front Streets.^[1] This was the line of the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway.^[1] This was followed in 1855 by Great Western Railways (GWR), which connected Toronto to the west along the waterfront.^[2] The Grand Trunk Railway completed its Montreal–Toronto main line one year later. The three railways now converged at the Toronto waterfront, a narrow strip of land south of Front Street. They were forced to share the limited real estate available.^[2]

As a consequence, the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) built the first union station in Toronto in 1858 at a location just west of the present Union Station train shed.^[3] The location was landfill, southwest of Front and York Streets. It was also Canada's first union station.^[2] It opened on June 21, 1858.^[4] The station consisted of three wooden structures and was initially shared with the Northern Railway of Canada (as the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron was renamed) and the Great Western Railway, although both railways built their own stations along the Toronto waterfront.^[2]

In 1864, delegates from the Charlottetown and Quebec City conferences on the Canadian Confederation were welcomed at this station by a huge crowd which then escorted the delegates to the Queen's Hotel on Front Street.^[4] In 1866, the Great Western opened its own station at Yonge Street.^[5] It was the first station in Toronto to provide a covered train shed.^[5] In 1867, the Northern opened its City Hall station at Jarvis Street.^[6]

By the 1870s, the 1858 station was inadequate and the Grand Trunk built a much larger, second Union Station at the same location, opening in 1873.^[2] The other railways continued to use their own stations but stopped at the Union Station as a courtesy to passengers.

References

• Boles, Derek (2009). Toronto's Railway Heritage. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-6570-5.

1. Boles 2009, p. 7.
2. Boles 2009, p. 8.
3. "Toronto's 1st Union Station - 1858". Toronto Railway Historical Association. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
4. "The Toronto Railway Historical Association's position on the renaming of Union Station" (PDF) (pdf). Toronto Rail Historical Association. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
5. Boles 2009, p. 28.
6. Boles 2009, p. 29.

Coordinates: 43°38′41″N 79°23′1″W / 43.64472°N 79.38361°W