By Sean McIntosh [1]
BELLEVILLE – Ever since Belleville’s new Via Rail [2] station opened in March of 2012, the 159-year old station is sitting empty right next to it.
For the last three years the city hasn’t decided what to do with the building and Janna Munkittrick-Colton, chair of Heritage Belleville [3], said she doesn’t want to see it crumble.
“Belleville has lost a lot of buildings over the last (50 years I’ve lived in Belleville) to fire and because people don’t care,” she said. “We need to find some uses for this building so it can be saved and stay a designated heritage building.”
Without proper care, the buildings will start to deteriorate and could collapse, Munkittrick-Colton said.
“There was one in Kingston similar to this one that, in the 1970s, stopped being used and the roofs caved in and it’s of no use. We should find uses for these buildings,” she said.
At one point in time the railway was the city’s biggest employer, according to the City of Belleville’s website [4].
The old railway station building was built in 1856, 16 years prior to the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway [5], and made Belleville an important transportation hub between Montreal and Toronto.
In 1992, the building was designated a heritage building by the federal government through the Heritage Railway Protection Act, meaning the building must be left to stand.
With all the history behind the building, it leaves people asking what can be done with the building now?
Munkittrick-Colton gave some suggestions on what the old building could be used for.
“It could become a railroad museum, there are some in some of other communities along the old railway system,” she said. “Model railroaders could use it. They have shows and they have meetings all the times so they could go in it.
“(We must) preserve the railroad history, because this was a main station and it still is a main station going through, so they should do something with that,” she said.
People on Twitter made some suggestions as well:
@mcintoshQNET [6] @QuinteALIVE [7] think @VIA_Rail [8] should rent it out to a cafe theres nothing close by for passengers
— kevin Young (@KevinYounge) March 11, 2015 [9]
@MCMenji [10] @mcintoshQNET [6] Such a cool old building.They should make it an old pub for those days when the train is 3 hours late 🙂 — Suzanne Coolen (@suzycoolen) March 11, 2015 [11]
@mcintoshQNET [6] @Samantha94Reed [12] So beautiful. A museum. An event venue i.e. revenue. I see weddings here!
— QuinteALIVE (@QuinteALIVE) March 11, 2015 [13]
@suzycoolen [14] @mcintoshQNET [6] – i’d love to have an era-themed party there! — Maria Cristina (@MCMenji) March 11, 2015 [15]
@mcintoshQNET [6] @MarkHodginsQnet [16] n@BCC1864 @threadz2go [17] new chamber building maybe? — Chris Toombes(@muchmor) March 11, 2015 [18]
@suzycoolen [14] @mcintoshQNET [6] emergency housing. Belleville has zilch, and it’s very sad. — ✴✴kt(@KatieTurf9) March 11, 2015 [19]