Bay Roberts Cable Station
bay-roberts · The Baccalieu Trail
The Conception Bay building that once carried Winston Churchill's private line to Roosevelt.
In 1910 the Western Union Telegraph Company selected Bay Roberts as the landing site for a transatlantic cable; in August of that year the cable ship Colinia began laying the line toward Sennen Cove, Cornwall, alongside a second line to Coney Island, New York. The Cable Station, a Classical Revival commercial block, was erected in 1913 to house the transmitting equipment and a staff of about 45 operators. Western Union laid out Cable Avenue with duplex houses, sidewalks, streetlights, and chestnut trees for its staff. In the Second World War the station was guarded by the Newfoundland Constabulary, the Newfoundland Militia, and Quebec soldiers of the Canadian Army, because one cable carried a private line between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The restored building now houses a museum, art gallery, and municipal offices; it was designated a Registered Heritage Structure in October 1998.
How to get there
Bay Roberts on Conception Bay: walk Cable Avenue with its chestnut-lined Western Union duplexes to the restored cable station museum.
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