By Pepper Parr
October 8th, 2106
BURLINGTON, ON
There are people in Burlington who don’t know just where the Freeman Station is now located – it’s right beside the Fire Station HQ on Plains Road – and last Saturday more than 800 people toured the station – it was the first time since 1988 this historic building was open to the public
The Grand Trunk Railway station first opened in 1906 and was the spot on the railway line where fruit and farm produce was shipped out of Burlington to locations around the world.
It took years but the Freeman Station finally found a home – now it needs the last piece of its funding to complete the restoration.
The station has had at times a tortured history – it was saved from the wrecking ball when a group of citizens refused to let their city council sell what was left of the building for kindling.
It got moved from its original location when the space was needed for railway track expansion and was parked beside the fire station until a real home could be found.
That real home turned out to be yards away from the fire station.
A group of dedicated volunteers has worked for the past two years on making the space presentable for visitors.
They welcome anyone who wants to take part in the rehabilitation of this historic structure.
Station gets moved to its new home and is prepared for the concrete basement that will be poured beneath it.
They have set a very high barrier for themselves – the Grand Re-Opening of the station July 1st, 2017 – the day Canada celebrates is sesquicentennial – our 150th birthday.
If anyone can make this happen – it will be the crew that shows up regularly to nail down, sand and paint the planks and walls that have been restored.
They are about $250,000 shy of the budget they need to complete this work.
The time has come for city council to put a sum of money into the 2017 budget so these people can complete the job they started back in 2011.
The day the Friends of Freeman Station saved it from the wrecking ball.
Mark is doing better than me. I’ve driven New Street several times between Guelph and Walkers Line over the past few weeks. I’ve seen one cyclist…riding on the sidewalk. Isn’t that illegal, by the way.
Yes Mark: the New Street Road Diet is ridiculous. I too would sooner have spent the $200K on refurbishing Freeman Station. Not only is the Freeman Station an important reminder of our history and tradition but it would actually be available for every citizen in this community to visit. Of course, it clearly doesn’t meet with our Mayor’s “green agenda”, so ergo, it serves no purpose in his opinion.
As I was driving along New Street between Walker’s Line and Guelph Line, it occurred to me that the cost of painting the new lanes for the City of Burlington was about $210,000 of taxpayers’ money. As I looked around for any signs of cyclists, there weren’t any to be found. In fact, since I drive this stretch of road many times daily, I’ve only seen 3 bicyclists in total using the lanes since the road was repainted. It has been close to 3 months and this is the kind of bicycle volume using New Street. This is ridiculous! Once winter arrives, I seriously doubt if there will be hardly anyone foolish enough to be riding along either side of New Street over those next 4 or 5 winter months. What parent would put their children in harms way by permitting them to ride on this busy roadway regardless of the season? Not any as it seems to me. Good for the parents. I think it is more than fair to say that this road diet appears to be a complete disaster, and it probably should never have been implemented. The money would have been much better used if it had been turned over to the Friends of Freeman Station in order for them to properly complete their fantastic restoration on this city owned building. Congratulations by the way to the Friends of Freeman Station for getting Burlington’s most officially recognized historical structure to where it is today. Keep up the great work.
A highly commendable goal. Where there’s a will there may well be a way. Is the committee hoping that the city will provide all of the requisite funds?