Some members of City of North Vancouver council are getting anxious for the city’s historic PGE Railway station, as it languishes in a vacant lot and suffers vandalism and neglect.
The building, which was the ticket office for the Pacific Great Eastern railway at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue more than 100 years ago, has been sitting at 449 Alder St. since April 2014 when council had it moved to make way for a revitalization of the Cates deck.
The site will eventually be home to the new Presentation House Gallery.
Information surfaced during some procedural housekeeping at Monday’s council meeting that the building wasn’t faring well at its temporary home in Moodyville.
“I was very concerned when I received a phone call from someone on Alder Street reporting that since the station was moved to its temporary location, it has been subjected to squatters and graffiti. I don’t think we want that kind of thing to go on. It’s important that we find an appropriate place,” said Coun. Pam Bookham.
City council members had debated whether the historic structure should be brought back to sit on the rebuilt Cates deck or whether the city should find another home for it elsewhere.
Heritage preservation advocates lobbied the city to keep it as near to its original location as possible in order for it to maintain its heritage context.
Though Bookham and Coun. Don Bell fought to keep it near its original site, Waterfront Park surfaced as the next most likely new home.
City staff have drawn up a conceptual plan to move it there, but there are no immediate plans to move it.
Coun. Rod Clark urged city staff to step up the pace.
“I don’t want it to lie fallow on Alder Street,” he said, noting he too has seen its degradation on his walks through the neighbourhood. “PGE station is indeed attracting rodents. It’s attracting graffiti.
It’s a sad state of affairs and it deserves better from us.”
Potential re-uses that have been floated for the building include turning it into an ice cream shop, coffee joint or bicycle rental shop.
