The entire building was moved 50ft from its former location next to the tracks to its current location. The effort took two attempts.
For many years the station served as the place from which most people arrived and departed from Fernie as well as the point of entry for almost all mail, telegraphs, goods, and as the exit for a high percentage of the coal and lumber being extracted from the area. By the mid 1960s the demands of consumers and industry evolved, and the last passenger train stopped here in 1964. By 1979 CPR had allowed for the station to fall into disrepair and abandoned its use.
In the mid-1980s the City considered demolishing the station. During this period the Fernie Arts Council, founded in 1973, had been searching for a permanent home and saw potential in the neglected building. Following negotiations, CPR donated the building and a portion of property fifty feet away from its tracks. The City in turn leased the building to the Arts Council. In 1987 the Arts Council began a community driven, multi-year project to relocate the station to the new parcel of land and rehabilitate the building for public use.
The Arts Council raised the capital for the project through local donations and municipal and provincial grants and qualified for provincial job training programs. Work began with cleaning out the building and moving it from the CPR right of way to the new location on the other side of First Avenue, which took two tries to complete. It took
countless hours over the next three years and teams of volunteers, skilled tradespeople, and trades in training to complete the rehabilitation while conserving the historic character.
The former freight room became a 100-seat theatre, and the waiting area became a gallery and café. The upstairs accommodations were turned into workshop and classroom space. The offices once used by CPR employees are still used to this day by Arts Council staff and a new basement level created additional space for potters, photographers, and backstage needs. The Arts Station has been in constant use since 1990 hosting art shows and classes, and as community studio space and a performing arts venue. In the past decade, the building has received extensive additional refurbishment including new washrooms, a pottery studio expansion, and to repurpose the café space as an accessible multipurpose room.
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