MATHESON – Matheson residents are working to derail plans to demolish a century-old train station.
Built in 1916, the train station is slated for demolition early this year as part of Ontario Northland Railway’s (ONR) efforts to reinstate the Northlander passenger rail service.
The station located at 385 Railway St. is set to be replaced by a modern transit shelter.
Barb Cornthwaite is leading a community initiative to delay or halt the demolition to preserve the station.
She created a Facebook group on Monday (Jan. 6) to rally support.
“I was realizing by speaking to people in the community that there really is a will to save the station,” she told TimminsToday.
“There is a will to save this, and I don't know if we can do it in time. You know, it's slated for demolition in January or February. So that's why I started it, because I thought, okay, we need to gather together and find a direction and see what we can do as a group to stop this from happening.”
SEE: Historic Matheson train station set for demolition in 2025
Cornthwaite is also creating a steering committee to explore options for saving the station, including applying for historic site designation under the Ontario Heritage Act.
“But if you're applying for it, and you are not the owner, it requires a letter from the owner. So that's really tricky,” she said.
The group is also planning to create an online petition and is encouraging residents to send letters to local officials, including MPP John Vanthof.
“But you know, the clock is ticking, and I’m very aware that in the middle of us trying to do something about it they could just show up and knock it down. Hopefully it'll be like other contractors that they're always late,” she said.
Cornthwaite acknowledged the challenges with preserving the building, including questions about funding and future use.
“There are a lot of different angles to it, and a lot of different things we're looking at right now. That's why I'm putting together this group, so we can kind of divide it up and have somebody who's taking care of an application, and making sure it's done well, and … all the different aspects,” she said.
The station has significant historical value, Cornthwaite said, particularly its connection to the Great Matheson Fire of 1916, which claimed the lives of over 200 people and remains the deadliest in Canadian history.
“I had done a lot of research when I was volunteering at the museum, and so I read a lot of people's stories, and knew a lot about the history of that particular time,” she said.
Following the fire, the train station was rebuilt by Matheson residents along with the help of some people who worked for the ONR, Cornthwaite said.
“This train station really is a symbol of the resilience of the people as they came back and were rebuilding their lives after the fire … It’s such a critical point in our history, in the history of Ontario, in the history of Canada,” she said.
Cornthwaite’s passion for saving the station stems from her research and personal experiences. After moving to Matheson at the age of 21, she fell in love with the town and its history.
“I wasn't born here. I came here, like a lot of the people that I read about in the museum,” she said.
“I wrote a musical, actually, that was based on all the stories that I had read. It was called The Last Frontier. I teach at the high school in Iroquois Falls … and so I had people in the community here that were part of it, people in the community in Iroquois Falls. It kind of wove together all of the stories of people.”
For Cornthwaite and her family, the station also played a practical role.
“Our children were all raised here. And when our girls were in university in Nipissing, they went back and forth on the train. That was an important link for us, and they just absolutely loved it,” she said.
Despite the tight timeline, Cornthwaite is hopeful the station’s historical significance will resonate with the community and stakeholders.
“The difference between something being knocked down and something being saved is often the person looking at it, if they have a vested interest in saving it, or vested interest in getting rid of it,” she said.
“We don’t want to just put up a little bus shelter there. We want to actually use what’s there, if we can, in order to honour the history of the place. We don’t have a lot of history up here. You know, we haven’t been here very long, comparatively. We do want to save what we have.”
