Bonaventure Station (1887–1952)

Notably, the Intercolonial Railway obtained running rights over the Grand Trunk into Montreal at the end of the 1880s; Bonaventure Station thus became its western terminal for service to and from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and other points in the Maritimes (see Ocean Limited).

In 1886–1888, a new, larger Bonaventure station building was built on the same site, to the plans of architect Thomas Seaton Scott[3] in the Second Empire style.

[4] As with the similar 1873 Toronto Union Station, the Grand Trunk's Chief Engineer E. P. Hannaford also contributed to the project.

[5] In the end, however, the new station was never built as the GTR began to focus on its Grand Trunk Pacific transcontinental railway project.

In 1910, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) came to town and secretly purchased three entire blocks of downtown Montreal property for a major terminal and real estate development to coincide with the construction of its Mount Royal Tunnel.

A temporary terminal facility was constructed to coincide with the tunnel project; however, financial difficulties at CNoR resulting from declining traffic levels following the commencement of World War I delayed completion.

The lands acquired by CNoR in the early part of the 20th century for its real estate developments were inherited by CN and the federal government.

During the post-war years, CN commissioned a major urban redevelopment of the city's downtown using these properties, focusing on its newly built Central Station.