There are two theories regarding the origin of Port Hope’s “Little Station”:

Built mid-1850’s for the Port Hope, Lindsay and Beaverton Railway that was subsequently extended to Midland and renamed the Midland Railway in 1869. When the Grand Trunk Railway purchased the Midland in 1884, moved to beside the stone Port Hope station on the main Grand Trunk Line. Or, more likely . . . 

It was the original early 1850’s Port Hope Grand Trunk station until the existing stone station was built in 1856. It may have been moved then, a little further along the line, to serve as a baggage shed. After a lengthy period of disuse, it was moved to the property of a railway employee. When it was slated for demolition, ACO Port Hope took ownership, and moved it to face the harbour sailboat anchorage where it was used by the local Yacht Club.

In 2018 ACO Port Hope financed and organized the Little Station’s latest move to a concrete foundation facing Lent’s Lane, beside Memorial Park that is the former raised railbed of the Midland Railway. Plans are that the Little Station will provide a public space for “Critical Mass”, a centre for contemporary art and innovative not-for-profit community arts organizations. In 2019 heritage architect and former Chair of ACO Port Hope, Philip Goldsmith, was nominated for ACO’s Paul Oberman award for Adaptive re-use for making it “his mission to relocate and restore the Little Station for a public purpose beside Memorial Park in Port Hope’s downtown core”.

To read more about the Little Station, Click HERE