Rainer Leipscher/Cambridge Reporter
Paul Langan (left), spokesman for the Hespeler Heritage Railway Station Association, and Murray Peterson, a federal government historian, view the outside of the old Hespeler rail station.
Kevin Swayze
Cambridge Reporter
CAMBRIDGE - It's a good thing the sorry state of Hespeler's CN rail station isn't a strike against it becoming a national historic site.
But it is in rough shape, said the federal historian who toured it Thursday.
"Wow. It needs a lot of work. Anything can be restored, but this is a huge job," said Murray Peterson, a consultant working for the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
While time, weather and arsonists have taken a toll on the 75-year-old wooden building, Mr. Peterson believes it has more going for it any of the 40 other old railway buildings he's examined since 1991: community interest in saving it.
"The support here is tremendous. That really is probably going to be the most important thing," he said.
The Hespeler Heritage Railway Station Association has 230 paid members wanting to restore the station and make it a community focal point again. Members are selling T-shirts and hats carrying the station's image to start what will need to be a $400,000 fund raising job to restore the station.
But it's more than the association, Mr. Peterson said. He understands there's a general interest in the old building from young and old in the city. And just Thursday morning, St. Augustine Catholic school students toured parts of the building on a field trip.
Since any federal historic designation of the building is mostly symbolic and doesn't bring with it any grant money to protect it, Mr. Peterson said the historic sites board wants to ensure the community is ready to preserve the building.
"This is way more (interest) than I have ever encountered... I'm amazed at how much support there is for this building."
His report will examine the historic merits of the building, looking at how important it was - and is - to the community and the rail line it served.
Walking through the station, Mr. Peterson was surprised to find pressed tin panels on the walls and ceilings. He's never seen that in so small a station before. He was also impressed with the exterior millwork detail along the roof line - at least what's left of it.
Mr. Peterson said it's up the the historic sites board to consider his report. It meets twice a year, so any work on designation of the station is a long way off.
"They say it will take a year," said Paul Langan, spokesman for the heritage station committee.
But the designation would be a bonus in the process to preserve the station, since the association's main concern today is taking control of it and planning a fund raising campaign to pay for repairs.
For the last several months, he's been trying to arrange a deal with CN to purchase the building and land. Wednesday morning, he received a call from CN nixing any hope of a sale, but CN was willing to sell the station for a dollar and lease the land it sits on to the association.
"Leasing the land if much better, if the lease is right. It's what we wanted 13 months ago," he said.
"We're close - very close. I think we're going to win this thing."