Midnapore Station ~ Built 1910

Heritage Park - Calgary Alberta Canada

Heritage Park Signage

Midnapore Station

Train stations were built about eight miles apart, a one-day drive by horse and wagon.  Townspeople came to the station to buy train tickets or to use the telegraph services.  Merchants and farmers came to claim or forward freight of every sort.  All mail arrived via the station, as did the world new that enliven the local newspaper.

Besides the ground floor office, waiting room and freight shed, many depots provided an upstairs apartment for the station agent and his family.  The agent not only sold tickets, checked bagged and sent telegraph messages, he also directed trains and cars and calculated shipping charges for freight and express packages.  Midnapore Station, constructed following standard plans, was similar to many railway  depots in western Canada.

In 1910, while the Canadian Pacific Railway was building Midnapore Station, Father Albert Lacombe  established an orphanage nearby.  The venerable missionary priest and nuns of the Sisters of Providence visited the station frequently to receive visitors to the orphanage or to pick up supplies.

Midnapore Station - 1910 - The railway stations was a gateway through which goods and services from around the world passed into frontier communities.