GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY STATION
Located at 41 Bridge Street, West - Tillsonburg, ON. This station was the first railway station to be located in the town proper and was a definite triumph for the town planners of the day, as the other two existing stations, the Air Line and the Canada Southern was located on the fringes of the community. Built in 1879, by the Great Western Railway, the station followed the standardized gothic revival style favoured by the Great Western. Identical to may others in the region, like the one in Ingersoll, it had a cruciform, cross-shaped ground plan. At opposite ends of the building could be found the waiting room and the luggage room with the booking and telegraph offices located in the middle with washrooms immediately to the rear. Typical gothic features included the arched windows; the steep roof with its original decorative slate patterning; and the high-pitched gable accents appointed with their distinctive trillium-like tracery. Today the station's façade has been restored and its interior renovated to accommodate the Tillsonburg District Craft Guild's activities another historic train station, The Tillsonburg, Lake Erie and Pacific (later the CP Station), to the East. The new addition houses a changing exhibit gallery and the TL &P station houses classrooms and meeting rooms. This project confirms that "Old is not simply historic or quaint, it may be made contemporary and useful."
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