LIUNA Station (Hamilton, Ontario)

 place with historical importance, conference centre, Neoclassical (architecture), movie / film / TV location

360 James Street North
Hamilton, ON, L8L 1H4
www.liunastation.com/

The City of Hamilton's former Canadian National Railway (CN Rail) station.

Construction of the station began in 1929, the cornerstone was laid on May 7, 1930, and the first passenger train left on February 20, 1930. The official opening was held a year later on May 27, 1931 attended by the Governor General, the Earl of Bessborough.

Passenger traffic levels remained relatively constant up until the 1960s when the opening of Hwy 401 had a major impact on passenger trains in SW Ontario. By 1962, most of the passenger trains along the Toronto-London-Windsor mainline ceased stopping in Hamilton.

The station was eventually closed on February 26, 1993 and sat abandoned for several years, until 1996 when the producers of the action movie "The Long Kiss Goodbye" offered CN $1 million to renovate the station so that part of the movie could be filmed there. The publicity from this attracted the Labourer's International Union of North America (LIUNA), who bought the station and spent $3 million for adaptive renovations to reopen the station in 2000 as LIUNA Station, a hall for weddings and other events.