Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Issue 6 - Fall 2017 | Page 23

1   CPR STATION
601 1st Avenue | Now in use as
The Arts Station 2   How Foon’s Laundry
491 1st Avenue | Now in use as
Fernie Elks Lodge
As use of the automobile grew, rail
travel declined and so did use of this
Second-Class station that had once
been the centre of activity in Fernie.
Although passenger services were
discontinued in 1964, the train tracks
are still in daily use carrying the freight
trains that regularly pass through the
Elk Valley. Since 1987, the Fernie &
District Arts Council has used this
facility as a performing and fine arts
venue. Dine trackside at the Blue Toque
Café and imagine yourself arriving on
the platform for the first time 100
years ago! See P17 for more. The Chinese entrepreneur How Foon
established several businesses in this
building constructed in 1908. He ran a
café, laundry and shoemaking shop on
the main floor and rented apartments
upstairs. The Fernie Elks Club
purchased the building and removed
the dividing walls to open the interior
for use as a hall. The exterior surface,
though, retains its original outline and
the original advertising mural for ‘Royal
Crown Soap.’ Across 5th street at The
1909 Royal Hotel, note the tops of the
23