Mc Adam Railway Station - Station Establishment

Station Establishment

In 1900, the CPR began construction of the massive combined railway station/hotel in McAdam to cater to wealthy passengers changing trains to continue to the resort town of St. Andrews where they would stay at the CPR's hotel The Algonquin. The station was commissioned by legendary CPR President Sir William Van Horne who maintained an exclusive private estate in St. Andrews on Minister's Island. On numerous occasions during Van Horne's influential presidency at the CPR during the 1890s, his private car would pass by the McAdam station on the way from Montreal to his summer retreat at St. Andrews and vice versa, sometimes staying in the station hotel.

The station was built in the Chateau style and resembles a Scottish castle. It was built of local granite and located at the western end of the wye leading to St. Andrews from the Montreal-Saint John main line.

The 20-room hotel occupies the two thirds of the second floor of the station. On the ground floor, the western end of the building's ground floor is occupied by a lunch counter/canteen with a large M shaped circular counter with swivel stools. This was largely where breakfasts would be served for hotel guests waiting for connecting trains and train passengers who were waiting for the Steam engines to be re-fuelled and passengers to clear Customs. It was not unusual to feed 2000 people a day at this lunch counter. The central portion of the ground floor has a more formal dining room and the kitchen area which served both eating establishments. The eastern end of the building's ground floor hosts the passenger waiting rooms and ticketing office and baggage storage rooms. The station also had a jail cell that was operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service.

In 1955, the CPR initiated an express service from Saint John to Montreal called The Atlantic Limited which was continued by Via Rail as the Atlantic with the eastern terminus shifted from Saint John to Halifax. Local connecting trains at McAdam to St. Andrews, St. Stephen, Fredericton and Woodstock were all cancelled in the early 1960s leaving McAdam with a single passenger train in each direction (The Atlantic Limited).