Level Crossing Operations at Union Station - adding names to the story

The Mill Street Viaduct as it appeared from the air in the 1950s. [the red X marks the pre-viaduct intersection of Main St., Paradise Row and Mill St.] Proposed and accepted during WW1, actual construction was delayed for 35 years. In 1950 my mother and her twelve brothers and sisters were living at 92 Paradise Row (red arrow above) when suddenly the grey concrete viaduct appeared like some colossal goalie stick dropped across the Valley floor. For nearly three decades a generation of North End kids would walk around or under, but rarely over it.

Union Station, Saint John, May 1950. The red X indicates the platform used by the operator in charge of supervising the level crossing on Mill Street, before the Viaduct was built.

My mother, who was Joyce Brown before marriage, has plenty of memories of Union Station during WW2 and later. After all, the Brown residence was at 92 Paradise Row, and the wooden fence did little to keep kids out of the station yard. Indeed many children in the neighborhood considered railway property fair territory in their after school and weekend rambling. Accidents could and did happen.

The Viaduct photo series (below) triggered specific memories, and I thought I would share what she recalls of the level crossing. The red "X" indicates a two story wooden structure directly in front of Union Station. It was an observation platform used by the level crossing operator on duty. The operator had the printed schedule for trains but was always watching for stalled vehicles or indeed kids playing on the tracks. I mentioned in an earlier Blog article the death of a boy a few hundred feet down the track from the platform.

When my mother was attending Holy Trinity School one of her girlfriends in Grades 5,6,and 7 was Rose Marie Rogers. Her father "Joe" Rogers was the level crossing operator who manned the platform afternoons and evenings. It was the custom at the time to take a working man a hot plate, (never sandwiches) and Joyce would accompany Rose Marie when she took her father his plate - it might be a stew or perhaps corned beef and cabbage. My mother's father was also a CPR employee working nearby.

The Rogers family rented a house owned by the CPR. It was located very near the station on the corner of Paradise Row and Southwark. After completing school Rose Marie moved away to Montreal and the girls lost touch. One of Mr. Rogers' sons fell in with a bad bunch and was involved in a major robbery in Saint John. That's a story I may touch upon another time.

Compare the 1950 photo series of the intersection of Mill Street and Main Street with this recent aerial shot . The Valley floor today is 50% covered by the asphalt of roads and events parking. UNION STATION is long gone. The entire Main Street commercial corridor is long gone. Mill Street and most of the infrastructure which serviced the port is gone. And of course almost 100 % of the families who lived in the Valley are gone. The name I chose for this Blog, "THE LOST VALLEY", is very appropriate.