E&N TRAIN STATION BURNS IN NANAIMO

FIRE DESTROYS HISTORIC
NANAIMO TRAIN STATION

Early Sunday morning a suspicious fire tore through the 87 year old E&N rail station on Selby Street.
The bottom two pictures show the rail side of the building before and after, while the top picture shows the Selby Street side of the building.
According to the local daily newspaper, it is unknown if the building is properly insured by the new owners.
The site has been in the news recently (and in this blog) with concerns over the general run down condition of the building and grounds. No one had even bothered to take the time to pull weeds growing out of the sidewalk in front of the entrance.
As recently as last Thursday I noticed the weeds had been pulled but the landscaping near the sign was still heavily overgrown with blackberries and weeds. It just looks like no one really cares at all.
If the current owners did not think enough of the building to have it properly insured you might wonder 'is this anyway to run a railroad?'.
Apparently there was no public money available to spruce up the aging station. Perhaps it should have been included with the referendum to build the new convention centre. Tacking on another million or so would hardly be noticed.
It will be interesting to see what shakes out over the next little while. If insurance will cover reconstruction that will be good. Although it will never be quite the same as the original structure, which held so much potential.
We are not making historic buildings anymore.