Series consists of records created and maintained by the Canadian National Railway Office of the General Manager of Real Estate. These records include right of way files, title registers, architectural drawings and blueprints, cartographic records, photographs, paintings, newspaper clippings, real estate documents, ledgers and legal contracts, primarily for Western Canada, covering the period 1840-1981 (predominantly 1900-1960s). Included here are Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Canadian Northern Railway land records, as well as files from various land development companies associated with the railways. More specifically, there are 311 ledgers and registers, approximately 181 metres of files and about 1000 plans dealing with farm and townsite land in Western Canada. The ledgers and registers consist of items such as farm or townsite land contract ledgers, farm or townsite land transfer ledgers and deed registers, townsite land sales registers, transfer schedule ledgers, crop lease registers, land grant registers, railway and townsite map and plan registers, land assessment/valuation registers, and a number of special registers concerning individual private brokers, companies, or townsites. There are two major categories of CN land contract file types: farm land and townsite property in Western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) including British Columbia and northwestern Ontario.The vast majority (over 2/3) of all files concern farm land, but the most varied category is townsite property, as many railway townsite land companies, eventually absorbed or amalgamated with the Canadian National Railways,were active in this area. There are also a relatively small number of GTP subject or case files that pertain to: branch lines; deals with private land brokers; legal files concerning agreements with the Dominion Government and land companies to sell and promote townsite land for settlement; correspondence relating to the selection of townsite names; Western Canadian townsite land sales; B.C. townsite land sales and correspondence, re: Prince Rupert and Prince George, etc. The townsite land files derive from the following companies: The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway; The Grand Trunk Pacific Development Co. Ltd.; Canadian Northern Town Properties Co. Ltd.; Canadian Land and Investment Co. Ltd.; Transcontinental Townsite Company Ltd.; Terminal Cities of Canada Ltd.; MacKenzie, Mann & Co. Ltd.; Canadian National Railways. Typically, the townsite plans indicate lots, blocks, streets, roads, railway facilities (ex: station grounds), prominent towns structures (churches, schools, cemeteries, etc.) and physical features (hills,creeks, etc.). Marginalia includes information contract and lease holders. They provide a "snapshot" of the development of town communities, or in the case of Prince Rupert plans, what the railway developers had originally envisioned for the future of the site. The Farm Land contract files record the sale of farm land by The Canadian Northern Railway, later the Canadian Northern Land Department of Canadian National Railways (eventually the CN Real Estate Department) cover the period from the end of WW I to the 1960s. Basically, the land contract file represents the end of the efforts of The Canadian Northern - through their own land settlement agency and in conjunction with the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration - to obtain settlers and place them on the land with some form of material assistance during the immigration "boom years" of the inter-war period. For further details, please see attached Guide To CN Land Records Held At Library and Archives Canada - Winnipeg There are also lower level sub-series descriptions for details on other CN land records originally compiled by the Office of the General Manager of Real Estate attached to this series: Right-of-way files and index Certificate of title register Plans and reference books Maynooth subdivision Expropriation plans Atlantic region Legal map of land records Drawings of station locations Index to maps Bonaventure station Montreal terminals Queen Elizabeth Hotel Train stations Orient House London England Valuation records Canadian Northern Town Properties Contract sales Canadian Northern Land Department Real Estate daily remittance record Township plans Townships acquired Transfer ledger Contracts Bathurst-Spadina Property data
Canadian National Railways. Office of the General Manager of Real Estate : The predecessor of the Office of the General Manager of Real Estate for Canadian National Railways was (for the period 1923-1931) the Land Commissioner under the Department of Insurance, Lands, Express, Telegraphs, Colonization, Development and General Matters. This department evolved with different name changes to reflect the changing corporate structure, but the position of Land Commissioner remained a consistent function. A Land and Property Department was established during the period 1942-1950 and from 1951 on, annual reports listed the General Manager of Real Estate under either Officers or Associated Services. RG30 General Inventory.
