Fredericton Train Station - 1904

     I took these photos of Fredericton Train Station back in late May.  It's located on Route 264, just off Route 2 highway beside the Confederation Trail.
     The following information comes from A Photo History of the Prince Edward Island Railway by Allan Graham.  Page 16. ''Keepers'' Stations.  As some of the communities containing flag stations grew, the residents demanded a bigger station with a large waiting room and a substantial freight area.  Since these stations had a caretaker or keeper, they were given the name ''keepers stations''.  The Daily Examiner of May 9, 1904 states:

     ''What are called 'Keepers station' being freight room and waiting room with keeper in charge - a very great improvement on the old railway flag stations, are to be built this year at Fredericton, Kinkora, Albany, Northam, and Richmond...''

     The Fredericton station remains near its former location. The Kinkora station was torn down; Albany station is a warehouse; Northam station is a farm building; first Richmond station burned in 1933, the second was is now a storage building.

     Today the station sits on the south side of the Confederation Trail - it was bought by the Weeks family in the early 1990's and moved across the trail to sit on their farmland property.  They intended to fix-it-up and doing something with it, but that never happened - today sits derelict!

     When the railroad was being put through Fredericton in the summer of 1872 Sarah Emeline Howard (b. 06-Sept-1852 at Black River, dtr. of Samuel Howard and Mary Ann Pye) had just married Henry Weeks (b. 1855) on 27-July-1872.  She moved in to the fairly new house built by Henry in the late 1860's.  She soon enough started the hard work of feeding the workers putting down the new rail line through their community.  Henry, a carpenter and farmer, built a large table and two large benches for the workers to eat at.

      The house is situated to the south of the railroad, facing north towards the railroad.  

      The farmland was sold out of the family last year.  Last fall the present owners moved into a mobile home parked in the front yard.  The old house was scheduled for demolition, however, they changed their mind.  The old house is empty.

     Below: Image cf. Arnold G. Smith.  Those in photo, L-R: brothers Frank Weeks (on horse) and Wm. Goulding "Golden" Weeks (standing with horse); unknown farm worker; seated on swing is Sarah and Henry Weeks.

Here's Allan Graham's book - now out of print.