Merritton’s N.S.&T. Station — a busy transit hub
Built in about 1913, the station was located by the intersection of two very different rail lines
The first street railway to connect St. Catharines with the village of Merritton was completed in 1880.
It was a horse-drawn line that ran from the centre of St. Catharines out as far as the old Lybster Cotton Mill at Glendale Avenue, where Stone Mill Inn and Johnny Rocco’s are today. The service was electrified in October 1887.
The newly founded Niagara, St. Catharines, and Toronto Street Railway (N.S.&T.) took over the line in 1901. The building in our old photo this week was the station the N.S.&T. built for itself in Merritton, on Merritt Street just west of Bessey Street.
The station was built in about 1913. Its rounded corner turret is not only a nice design feature but would also have provided the station master with a good place from which to see incoming trains, from whichever direction they were coming.
The N.S.&T. station was quite a transportation hub, being located next to the intersection of two different rail lines with two different purposes.
On the right, we see a train that has just come in on what was called the Main Line, from the direction of Niagara Falls, heading toward its downtown St. Catharines terminal, then on St. Paul Street, across from where the Leonard Hotel stood.
Originally built in the 1880s by Niagara Central Railway and used by steam trains between St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, the main line was taken over by the new N.S.&T. in 1901 and converted to an electric railway. It remained in service until 1947, but continued to be operated by CN as a freight line for several decades after that. Its rails have long since been removed.
On the left we see another N.S.&T. car that was travelling along what was known as the local line between St. Catharines and Thorold, following Merritt Street up the escarpment and on to the N.S.&T. station at the corner of Front and Sullivan streets in Thorold. Service on this line ended as of May 31, 1931, when bus service replaced the rail service.
The Merritton N.S.&T. station that once served both lines was demolished sometime in 1938.
Our “today” photo shows the place where the station used to be, on the east side of Merritt Street just west of Bessey. The site of the old station today is just one corner of a triangular shaped parkette there which contains a historic marker recalling the days of the fabled N.S.&T street railway in Merritton.