National Historic Sites of Canada

Early developments

The celebrations of Quebec City's tricentennial in 1908 acted as a catalyst for federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites.

Prince of Wales Fort in Churchill, Manitoba was one of the first two sites designated in Western Canada.^[9]

Emerging Canadian nationalist sentiment in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to an increased interest in preserving Canada's historic sites.^[10] There were galvanizing precedents in other countries. With the support of notables such as Victor Hugo and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the Commission des monuments historique was created in France in 1837; it published its first list of designated sites, containing 934 entries, in 1840. In the United Kingdom, the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty was created in 1894 to protect that country's historic and natural heritage.^[11][12] While there was no National Park Service in the United States until 1916, battlefields of the Civil War were designated and managed by the War Department: Chickamauga and Chattanooga (created 1890), Antietam (1890), Shiloh (1894), Gettysburg (1895), Vicksburg (1899), and Chalmette (1907).^[13][14]

Domestically, Lord Dufferin, the Governor General from 1872 to 1878, initiated some of the earliest, high-profile efforts to preserve Canada's historic sites. He was instrumental in stopping the demolition of the fortifications of Quebec City, and he was the first public official to call for the creation of a park on the lands next to Niagara Falls.^[14][15]

The 1908 tricentennial of the founding of Quebec City, and the establishment that same year of the National Battlefields Commission to preserve the Plains of Abraham, acted as a catalyst for federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites across Canada.^[16] At the same time, the federal government was looking for ways to extend the National Park system to Eastern Canada.^[10] The more populated east did not have the same large expanses of undeveloped Crown land that had become parks in the west, so the Dominion Parks Branch (the predecessor to Parks Canada) looked to historic features to act as focal points for new national parks. In 1914, the Parks Branch undertook a survey of historic sites in Canada, with the objective of creating new recreational areas rather than preserving historic places. Fort Howe in Saint John, New Brunswick was designated a national historic park in 1914, named the "Fort Howe National Park". The fort was not a site of significant national historic importance, but its designation provided a rationale for the acquisition of land for a park. Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia was also designated in 1917.^[17]

In 1919, William James Roche, the Minister of the Interior, was concerned over the fate of old fur trade posts in Western Canada, and he was also being lobbied by historical associations across Canada for federal funds to assist with the preservation and commemoration of local landmarks. At the same time, the Department of Militia and Defence was anxious to transfer old forts, and the associated expenses, to the Parks Branch. Roche asked James B. Harkin, the first Commissioner of Dominion Parks, to develop a departmental heritage policy. Harkin believed that the Parks Branch did not have the necessary expertise to manage historic resources; he was troubled by the relatively weak historic value of Fort Howe, the country's first historic park, and feared that the Branch's park improvements were incompatible with the heritage attributes of Fort Anne, the second historic park.^[18]

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

The initial focus of the program was strictly on commemoration rather than preservation or restoration. The ruins of the Fortress of Louisbourg were designated in 1920, but efforts to restore the fortress did not commence until 1961.^[19]

On Harkin's recommendation, the government created the Advisory Board for Historic Site Preservation (later called the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada) in 1919 in order to advise the Minister on a new program of National Historic Sites.^[10] Brigadier General Ernest Alexander Cruikshank, a noted authority on the War of 1812 and the history of Ontario, was chosen as the Board's first chairman, a post he held for twenty years.^[20] The first place designated and plaqued under the new program was the "Cliff Site" in Port Dover, Ontario, where two priests claimed sovereignty over the Lake Erie region for Louis XIV of France in 1670.^[21]

Due to a lack of resources, the HSMBC limited itself to recommending sites for designation, and the focus of the program was on commemoration rather than on preservation. Benjamin Sulte, a member of the HSMBC, wrote to Harkin in 1919 about the significant ruins at the Forges du Saint-Maurice, demonstrating his preference for the installation of a plaque over restoration: "All that can be done in our days is to clear away the heap of stones, in order to reach the foundation walls and plant a sign in the centre of the square thus uncovered."^[22]

In the early years of the program, National Historic Sites were chosen to commemorate battles, important men, the fur trade and political events; the focus was on the "great men and events" credited with establishing the nation.^[16][23] Of the 285 National Historic Sites designated by 1943, 105 represented military history, 52 represented the fur trade and exploration, and 43 represented famous individuals (almost entirely men). There was also a strong bias in favour of commemorating sites in Ontario over other parts of the country. At one point, some members of the HSMBC concluded that there were no sites at all in Prince Edward Island worthy of designation. The then prominence of sites in Ontario related to the War of 1812 and the United Empire Loyalists has been attributed to the influence of Cruikshank, resulting in a "veritable palisade of historical markers along the St. Lawrence", and in Niagara, promoting a loyalist doctrine of imperial unity with Britain, while commemorating resistance to "Americanism".^[24] Proposals to designate sites related to the immigration of Jews, Blacks and Ukrainians to Canada were rejected, as were attempts to recognize patriots of the Rebellions of 1837.^[25][26] Such was the view of Canadian history by the Board in the first half of the 20th century. The HSMBC at the time has been described by historian Yves Yvon Pelletier as a "Victorian gentlemen's club", made up of self-taught historical scholars, whose decisions were made without public consultation and without the benefit of a secretariat to further investigate the recommendations of Board members.^[27]

The following have served as members of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada:

Evolution of the program

Áísínai’pi, a location of significant cultural and religious importance to the Blackfoot people, was designated in 2006.^[28]

The historic district of Westmount, Quebec was designated in 2011 in recognition of the efforts of local citizens who had worked for decades to protect the district's historic built environment.^[29][30]

As time passed and the system grew, the scope of the program and the nature of the designations evolved. By the 1930s, the focus of the heritage movement in Canada had shifted from commemoration to preservation and development. The change was most marked in Ontario, where the Niagara Parks Commission was restoring Fort George and the Department of Highways was restoring Fort Henry. It took the Great Depression to create opportunities for significant heritage preservation projects at the federal level. Although the HSMBC took little interest in these efforts, limiting itself to a commemorative role, the Parks Branch made wide use of government relief funds to hire workers to assist with the restoration of old forts.^[31]

In 1943, the interim chairman of the HSMBC, Frederic William Howay, urged his fellow Board members to consider a broader range of designations, and to correct the geographic and thematic imbalance in the designations. In particular, Howay encouraged the HSMBC to pay more attention to economic, social and cultural history, and he urged a moratorium on additional designations related to the War of 1812.^[32][33] In 1951, the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences highlighted the imbalances of the National Historic Sites program, urging a more ambitious program with more attention paid to architectural preservation. In 1955, the Historic Sites and Monuments Act was amended to allow the designation of buildings due to their age or design, resulting in a new focus on the designation of Canada's built heritage.^[34][35] The 1950s also marked the beginning of the "big project" era, which reached its apogee in the 1960s, in which the federal government invested significant funds in the restoration and reconstruction of high-profile National Historic Sites such as the Halifax Citadel, the Fortress of Louisbourg, the fortifications of Quebec City and the historic core of Dawson City.^[36]

The 1970s marked the start of a new shift in the nature of the designations. Of the 473 National Historic Sites designated between 1971 and 1993, the formerly dominant category of political-military events represented only 12 percent of the new designations, with the "Battle of..."-type commemorations being overtaken by sites associated with federal politics. The largest group of designations (43 percent) pertained to historic buildings.^[37] By the 1990s, three groups were identified as being underrepresented among National Historic Sites: Aboriginal peoples, women, and ethnic groups other than the French and the English. Efforts were subsequently made to further diversify the designations accordingly.^[16][23] Saoyú-ʔehdacho in the Northwest Territories was designated in 1997, becoming the first National Historic Site both designated and acquired on the basis of consultation with Aboriginal peoples, and the largest National Historic Site in land area (approximately the size of Prince Edward Island).^[38] It was at this time that the use of the term "National Historic Park", then still used for the class of larger National Historic Sites operated by Parks Canada and deemed to be of "extraordinary value to Canadian history", was phased out.^[35][39][40]

Changes were not limited to new designations, as the interpretation of many existing National Historic Sites did not remain static and evolved over time. For example, the commemoration of National Historic Sites on the Prairies related to the Red River Rebellion and the North-West Rebellion has gone through at least three phases to date. In the 1920s, plaques erected at these sites trumpeted the expansion of Canada and western civilization across North America. Due to local pressures, changes at the HSMBC and evolving historiography, texts introduced in the 1950s avoided the previous triumphalist version of events, but also avoided any analysis of the causes or consequences of the events. Commencing in the 1970s, a changing approach to heritage conservation at Parks Canada, coupled with growing regionalism and a more assertive Aboriginal rights movement, led to the next generation of interpretative documents, one that included a focus on the societies which Canada's 19th-century expansion had displaced.^[33]

Discover more about History related topics

Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec City, officially Québec, is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is the eleventh-largest city and the seventh-largest metropolitan area in Canada. It is also the second-largest city in the province after Montreal. It has a humid continental climate with warm summers coupled with cold and snowy winters.

Prince of Wales Fort

Prince of Wales Fort

The Prince of Wales Fort is a historic bastion fort on Hudson Bay across the Churchill River from Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.

Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill is a town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly 140 km (87 mi) from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World," and to the benefit of its burgeoning tourism industry.

Canadian nationalism

Canadian nationalism

Canadian nationalism seeks to promote the unity, independence, and well-being of Canada and the Canadian people. Canadian nationalism has been a significant political force since the 19th century and has typically manifested itself as seeking to advance Canada's independence from influence of the United Kingdom and the United States. Since the 1960s, most proponents of Canadian nationalism have advocated a civic nationalism due to Canada's cultural diversity that specifically has sought to equalize citizenship, especially for Québécois and French-speaking Canadians, who historically faced cultural and economic discrimination and assimilationist pressure from English Canadian-dominated governments. Canadian nationalism became an important issue during the 1988 Canadian general election that focused on the then-proposed Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, with Canadian nationalists opposing the agreement – saying that the agreement would lead to inevitable complete assimilation and domination of Canada by the United States. During the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty that sought to determine whether Quebec would become a sovereign state or whether it would remain in Canada, Canadian nationalists and federalists supported the "no" side while Quebec nationalists largely supported the "yes" side, resulting in a razor-thin majority in favour of the "no" side that supported Quebec remaining in Canada.

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, the Basilica of Saint Denis, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, the medieval walls of the city of Carcassonne and Roquetaillade castle in the Bordeaux region.

Monument historique

Monument historique

Monument historique is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, a garden, a bridge, or other structure, because of their importance to France's architectural and historical cultural heritage. Both public and privately owned structures may be listed in this way, as well as movable objects. As of 2012 there were 44,236 monuments listed.

France

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properties with various title designations. The U.S. Congress created the agency on August 25, 1916, through the National Park Service Organic Act. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior.

American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, located in northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee, preserves the sites of two major battles of the American Civil War: the Battle of Chickamauga and the Siege of Chattanooga. A detailed history of the park's development was provided by the National Park Service in 1998.

Antietam National Battlefield

Antietam National Battlefield

Antietam National Battlefield is a National Park Service-protected area along Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Washington County, northwestern Maryland. It commemorates the American Civil War Battle of Antietam that occurred on September 17, 1862.

Gettysburg National Military Park

Gettysburg National Military Park

The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the park is managed by the National Park Service. The GNMP properties include most of the Gettysburg Battlefield, many of the battle's support areas during the battle, and several other non-battle areas associated with the battle's "aftermath and commemoration," including the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Many of the park's 43,000 American Civil War artifacts are displayed in the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center.

Plaques affixed to cairns were initially used to mark National Historic Sites, such as this one at Glengarry Landing in Ontario

National Historic Sites are organized according to five broad themes: Peopling the Land, Governing Canada, Developing Economies, Building Social and Community Life, and Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life.^[41] To be commemorated, a site must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• illustrate an exceptional creative achievement in concept and design, technology or planning, or a significant stage in the development of Canada;
• illustrate or symbolize, in whole or in part, a cultural tradition, a way of life or ideas important to the development of Canada;
• be explicitly and meaningfully associated or identified with persons who are deemed to be of national historic significance; or
• be explicitly and meaningfully associated or identified with events that are deemed to be of national historic significance.^[42]

Designation as a National Historic Site provides no legal protection for the historic elements of a site.^[43] However, historic sites may be designated at more than one level (national, provincial and municipal),^[16] and designations at other levels may carry with them some legal protections.

Most National Historic Sites are marked by a federal plaque bearing Canada's Coat of Arms.^[44] In earlier years, these plaques were erected on purpose-built cairns,^[10] and in later years have been attached to buildings or free-standing posts. These maroon and gold markers are typically in English and French, though some are trilingual where another language is relevant to the subject being commemorated.^[45]

Lists of National Historic Sites by location		Number of NHSes	First NHS designated	Example of NHS and designation date
Alberta sites		61	1923	Frog Lake (1923)
British Columbia sites		100	1923	Rogers Pass (1971)
Manitoba sites		57	1920	Exchange District (1996)
New Brunswick sites		63	1920	Hartland Covered Bridge (1980)
Newfoundland and Labrador sites		47	1951	Signal Hill (1951)
Nova Scotia sites		90	1920	Pier 21 (1997)
Ontario sites		274	1919	McCrae House (1966)
Hamilton sites		15	1929	Dundurn Castle (1997)
Kingston sites		22	1923	Kingston City Hall (1961)
Niagara Region sites		26	1921	Niagara-on-the-Lake (2003)
Ottawa sites		26	1925	Parliament Buildings (1976)
Toronto sites		37	1923	Fort York (1923)
Prince Edward Island sites		22	1933	L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish (2004)
Quebec sites		198	1919	Île d'Orléans Seigneury (1990)
Montreal sites		61	1920	Notre-Dame Roman Catholic Basilica (1989)
Quebec City sites		37	1923	Château Frontenac (1981)
Saskatchewan sites		49	1923	Canadian Bank of Commerce (1976)
Northwest Territories sites		12	1930	Church of Our Lady of Good Hope (1977)
Nunavut sites		12	1964	Inuksuk Point (1969)
Yukon sites		11	1959	Dawson Historical Complex (1959)
France		2	1996	Vimy Ridge (1996)

Discover more about Lists of National Historic Sites by location related topics

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta

This is a list of National Historic Sites in the province of Alberta. As of March 2018, there are 61 National Historic Sites designated in Alberta, 16 of which are owned or administered by Parks Canada. The first three sites in Alberta were designated in 1923: the site of rival trading posts Fort Augustus and Fort Edmonton, the site of the Frog Lake Massacre and the site of the first outpost of the North-West Mounted Police in Western Canada at Fort Macleod.

Frog Lake Massacre

Frog Lake Massacre

The Frog Lake Massacre was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. Led by Wandering Spirit, young Cree men attacked officials, clergy and settlers in the small settlement of Frog Lake in the District of Saskatchewan in the North-West Territories on 2 April 1885. Nine settlers were killed in the incident.

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia

This is a list of National Historic Sites in the province of British Columbia. As of January 2020, there were 100 National Historic Sites designated in British Columbia, 13 of which are administered by Parks Canada. The first National Historic Sites to be designated in British Columbia were Fort Langley and Yuquot in 1923.

Rogers Pass (British Columbia)

Rogers Pass (British Columbia)

Rogers Pass is a high mountain pass through the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, but the term also includes the approaches used by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) and the Trans-Canada Highway. In the heart of Glacier National Park, this tourism destination since 1886 is a National Historic Site.

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Manitoba

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Manitoba

This is a list of National Historic Sites in Manitoba. There are 57 National Historic Sites designated in the province, eight of which are administered by Parks Canada. This list uses names designated by the national Historic Sites and Monuments Board, which may differ from other names for these sites.

Exchange District

Exchange District

The Exchange District is a National Historic Site of Canada in the downtown area of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Just one block north of Portage and Main, the Exchange District comprises twenty city blocks and approximately 150 heritage buildings, and it is known for its intact early 20th century collection of warehouses, financial institutions, and early terracotta-clad skyscrapers.

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in New Brunswick

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in New Brunswick

This is a list of National Historic Sites in the province of New Brunswick. There are 63 National Historic Sites designated in New Brunswick, as of 2018, eight of which are administered by Parks Canada. The first National Historic Sites to be designated in New Brunswick were Fort Beauséjour – Fort Cumberland and Fort Gaspareaux in 1920.

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador

This is a list of National Historic Sites in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. There are 47 National Historic Sites designated in Newfoundland and Labrador, 10 of which are administered by Parks Canada. The first National Historic Sites to be designated in the province were Fort Amherst, Fort Townshend and Signal Hill in 1951.

Signal Hill, St. John's

Signal Hill, St. John's

Signal Hill is a hill which overlooks the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Mostly a National Historic Site, adjacent to is the largely encaved museum of Johnson Geo Centre and its associated park. The highest point, Ladies' Lookout, above Cabot Tower, is 167 metres (548 ft) high. The community of The Battery lies on the slope of the hill overlooking the Harbour. On 12 December 1901, the first transatlantic wireless transmission was received by Guglielmo Marconi, to its abandoned fever hospital.

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Nova Scotia

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Nova Scotia

This is a list of National Historic Sites in the province of Nova Scotia. As of April 2021, there were 91 National Historic Sites designated in Nova Scotia, 26 of which are administered by Parks Canada.

Pier 21

Pier 21

Pier 21 was an ocean liner terminal and immigration shed from 1928 to 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Nearly one million immigrants came to Canada through Pier 21, and it is the last surviving seaport immigration facility in Canada. The facility is often compared to the landmark American immigration gateway Ellis Island. The former immigration facility is now occupied by the Canadian Museum of Immigration, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design as well as various retail and studio tenants.

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Ontario

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Ontario

This is a list of National Historic Sites in the province of Ontario. As of July 2021, there were 274 sites designated in Ontario, 39 of which are administered by Parks Canada. Of all provinces and territories, Ontario has the greatest number of National Historic Sites, and the largest number under Parks Canada administration, with a dense concentration in southern Ontario. The five largest clusters are listed separately:· List of National Historic Sites in Hamilton · List of National Historic Sites in Kingston · List of National Historic Sites in Niagara Region · List of National Historic Sites in Ottawa · List of National Historic Sites in Toronto