Photo: Ham1ltoner1n · CC BY-SA 4.032% of Riverdale’s homes were built before 1961
Against 18% in the typical town, Riverdale has 1.8 times the share. 25 places on the heritage registers lie within 5 km of Riverdale, the nearest Grierson Centre, 900 m away. Look 6.1 km away, to Glenora, for the nearest place of the highest designation.
Around Riverdale, within 5 km, most dated places come from the decades after Confederation
The area, not the town: places within 5 km of Riverdale, dated by the first construction year on their records.
14 places within 5 km have a date. The earliest is “Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Edmonton, Alberta” in Ritchie, begun in 1907.
25 historic places within 5 km of Riverdale
The mix: 22 provincial or municipal listings, a Recognized Federal Heritage Building and a heritage railway station. Nearest comes Grierson Centre, 900 m off, in Boyle Street. They stand in 11 towns, Downtown, Strathcona and Queen Alexandra among them.
The 12 nearest, within 5 km
| Grierson CentreRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 1912–1914 · 900 m away, in Boyle Street |
| Hotel MacdonaldMunicipal historic resource · 1915 · 1.2 km away, in Downtown |
| McLeod BuildingMunicipal historic resource · 1915 · 1.4 km away, in Downtown |
| Hudson's Bay Company StablesMunicipal historic resource · 1914 · 1.6 km away, in Downtown |
| McKay Avenue SchoolMunicipal historic resource · 1.9 km away, in Downtown |
| First Presbyterian ChurchMunicipal historic resource · 1912 · 2 km away, in Downtown |
| Rossdale Power PlantProvincial historic resource · 2 km away, in Downtown |
| Victoria ArmouryProvincial historic resource · 2.1 km away, in Downtown |
| Ritchie MillMunicipal historic resource · 2.1 km away, in Strathcona |
| St. Josaphat CathedralMunicipal historic resource · 1946 · 2.3 km away, in McCauley |
| Connaught ArmouryMunicipal historic resource · 2.4 km away, in Strathcona |
| J. J. Duggan ResidenceMunicipal historic resource · 2.5 km away, in Strathcona |
Little new building in Riverdale: 2.9% of homes date from 2016 to 2021, against 4.1%
24% of Riverdale’s homes were built from 2001 to 2015, more than the typical town’s 15%. Homes built from 1961 to 1980 make up just 20% of Riverdale’s, against 27% in the typical town. Half of the homes standing in Riverdale today were built before 1981.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
How Riverdale compares with 16 towns its size
Towns of 5,500 to 5,500 residents, by places on the registers.
Only Cookshire-Eaton, New Glasgow, Grand Falls / Grand-Sault, Island Park-Wellington Village and Southwold have more. Their median is 0. 11 of them have nothing on the registers.
Riverdale and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverdale | 5,490 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Boyle Street | 5,862 | 1 | 0 | 1912 |
| Bonnie Doon | 6,697 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Holyrood | 3,305 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Downtown | 12,880 | 7 | 0 | 1912 |
| Forest Heights | 4,118 | 0 | 0 | — |
| McCauley | 4,060 | 1 | 0 | 1946 |
Riverdale in brief
Counted by age, 32% of Riverdale’s homes predate 1961, against 18% in the typical town. Most towns its size have more historic places: the typical one has 0.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Protection. Federal recognition isn’t a planning control: buildings the federal government owns follow its heritage policy, while others are protected only by a provincial or municipal designation.
- Provincial and municipal lists. Outside Québec, provinces’ and municipalities’ heritage registers aren’t open data; their places are known only through Wikidata items with a register number, and only those with an encyclopedia article get a page.
- The federal register. Every federal designation is in Parks Canada’s directory, and the Canadian Register of Historic Places gives most of them a bilingual statement of significance.
- The grade. There is no history grade: the page sets out the record and compares it with other towns.
- The tiers. Tiers follow the designation: national recognition and classement first, other federal designations next, provincial and local listings last.
- People and events. Parks Canada’s open file gives its national historic persons no place. A town’s page names one only when the person was born there (matched by name and both life years) or one of its own historic places carries the name and its record speaks of them; national historic events stay off.
Questions about Riverdale’s history
How many historic places does Riverdale have on the registers?
None within Riverdale itself; the nearest is 900 m off: Grierson Centre, in Boyle Street.
How old are the homes in Riverdale?
The 2021 Census dates 32% of its homes before 1961 (18% in the typical town).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Parks Canada).
Sources: Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Canadian Register of Historic Places (federal extract) · Wikidata (CC0) for map points, other names and articles · Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (homes by period of construction). Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).