National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks Canada, a federal agency, manages the National Historic Sites program. Fort Anne, in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, became Canada’s first administered National Historic Site in 1917. As of March 2026, there were 1,004 National Historic Sites, 171 of which are administered by Parks Canada; the remainder are administered or owned by other levels of government or private entities. The sites are located across all ten provinces and three territories, with two sites located in France (the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and Canadian National Vimy Memorial).
There are related federal designations for National Historic Events and National Historic Persons. Sites, Events and Persons are each typically marked by a federal plaque of the same style, but the markers do not indicate which designation a subject has been given. For example, the Rideau Canal is a National Historic Site, while the Welland Canal is a National Historic Event.
History
Early developments
thumb|[[Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, designated in 1917, is the oldest National Historic Site.]]
thumb|right|The celebrations of [[Quebec City's tricentennial in 1908 acted as a catalyst for federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites.]]
thumb|right|[[Prince of Wales Fort in Churchill, Manitoba was one of the first two sites designated in Western Canada.]]
Emerging Canadian nationalist sentiment in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to an increased interest in preserving Canada's historic sites. 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. 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).
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.
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. At the same time, the federal government was looking for ways to extend the National Park system to Eastern Canada.
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
thumb|left|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.]]
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. 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.
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."
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. 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. 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". 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. 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.
List of members of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
The following have served as members of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada:
{|class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style=text-align:left" style="margin:1em auto;"
|+
!Name
!Province
!Year joined
!Year left
!Additional
|-
|E.A Cruikshank
|Ontario
|1919
| 1939
|Board Chairman 1919–1939
|-
|James Coyne
|Ontario
|1919
| 1932
|
|-
|Frederic Howay
|British Columbia
|1923
| 1944
|Board Chairman 1943–1944
|-
|Fred Landon
|Ontario
|1932
|1958
|Board Chairman 1950–1958
|-
|W.N. Sage
|British Columbia
|1944
|1959
|
|-
|Harry Walker
|Ontario
|1955
|1959
|
|-
|Donald Creighton
|Ontario
|1958
|1972
|
|-
|A.R.M. Lower
|Ontario
|1959
|1961
|
|-
|Margaret Ormsby
|British Columbia
|1960
|1967
|
|-
|James J. Talman
|Ontario
|1961
|1973
|
|-
|James Nesbitt
|British Columbia
|1967
|1971
|
|-
|Margaret Prang
|British Columbia
|1971
|1979
|
|-
|J.M.S Careless
|Ontario
|1972
|1985
|Board Chairman 1981–1985
|-
|B. Napier Simpson
|Ontario
|1973
|1978
|
|-
|Charles Humphries
|British Columbia
|1979
| –
|
|-
|Edward Storey
|Ontario
|1981
|1987
|
|-
|Thomas H.B Symons
|Ontario
|1986
| –
|Board Chairman 1986–
|-
|John H. White
|Ontario
|1988
| –
|
|}
Evolution of the program
thumb|right|[[Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park|Áísínai’pi, a location of significant cultural and religious importance to the Blackfoot people, was designated in 2006.]]
thumb|right|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.
]]
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
Designation as a National Historic Site provides no legal protection for the historic elements of a site. However, historic sites may be designated at more than one level (national, provincial and municipal), In earlier years, these plaques were erected on purpose-built cairns,
Lists of National Historic Sites by location
{|class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style=text-align:left;"
! width="33%" colspan="2" class="unsortable" |Sites by location
! width="12%" | Number of sites
! width="12%" | First site designated
! width="43%" class="unsortable" | Example site and designation date
|-
|Alberta sites
| 80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta
| 61
| 1923
| 80px Frog Lake (1923)
|-
|British Columbia sites
| 80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia
| 100
| 1923
| 80px Rogers Pass (1971)
|-
|Manitoba sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Manitoba|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Manitoba
| 58
| 1920
| 80px Exchange District (1996)
|-
|New Brunswick sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in New Brunswick|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in New Brunswick
| 63
| 1920
| 80px Hartland Covered Bridge (1980)
|-
|Newfoundland and Labrador sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador
| 47
| 1951
| 80px Signal Hill (1951)
|-
|Nova Scotia sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Nova Scotia|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Nova Scotia
| 90
| 1920
| 80px Pier 21 (1997)
|-
|Ontario sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Ontario|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Ontario
| 275
| 1919
| 80px McCrae House (1966)
|-
| colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Hamilton sites</div>
| 15
| 1929
| 80px Dundurn Castle (1997)
|-
| colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Kingston sites</div>
| 22
| 1923
| 80px Kingston City Hall (1961)
|-
|colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Niagara Region sites</div>
| 26
| 1921
| 80px Niagara-on-the-Lake (2003)
|-
| colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Ottawa sites</div>
| 26
| 1925
| 80px Parliament Buildings (1976)
|-
| colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Toronto sites</div>
| 37
| 1923
| 80px Fort York (1923)
|-
| Prince Edward Island sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Prince Edward Island|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Prince Edward Island
| 22
| 1933
| 80px L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish (2004)
|-
|Quebec sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Quebec|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Quebec
| 198
| 1919
| 80px Île d'Orléans Seigneury (1990)
|-
| colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Montreal sites</div>
| 61
| 1920
| 80px Notre-Dame Roman Catholic Basilica (1989)
|-
| colspan="2"| <div style="position:absolute; left:30px;">Quebec City sites</div>
| 37
| 1923
| 80px Château Frontenac (1981)
|-
|Saskatchewan sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Saskatchewan|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Saskatchewan
| 49
| 1923
| 80px Canadian Bank of Commerce (1976)
|-
|Northwest Territories sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in the Northwest Territories|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in the Northwest Territories
| 12
| 1930
| 80px Church of Our Lady of Good Hope (1977)
|-
|Nunavut sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Nunavut|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Nunavut
| 12
| 1964
| 80px Inuksuk Point (1969)
|-
|Yukon sites
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Yukon|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Yukon
| 11
| 1959
| 80px Dawson Historical Complex (1959)
|-
|France
|80px|link=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in France|alt=List of National Historic Sites of Canada in France
| 2
| 1996
| | Vimy Ridge (1996)
|-
|}
See also
- Canadian Register of Historic Places
- National symbols of Canada
- Royal monuments in Canada
- Seven Wonders of Canada
- List of World Heritage Sites in Canada
References
Further reading
- Campbell, Claire Elizabeth. Nature, Place, and Story: Rethinking Historic Sites in Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.
External links
- National Historic Sites of Canada – Parks Canada
- Historic places – Administered by Parks Canada