Medicine Hat Clay Industries · Photo: Grapher78 · CC BY 3.0
4historic places on the registers
History of Medicine Hat · Canada’s heritage registers
Medicine Hat has 4 historic places on the registers, 3 in the top tier
Counted by designation, there are a heritage railway station. The earliest construction date, 1906, belongs to Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Medicine Hat, Alberta. Medicine Hat has 0.6 for every 10,000 people, a higher rate than 75% of Canadian towns. 7 more places on provincial or local lists are counted from Wikidata without pages.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the place’s page. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Through time
The old face of Medicine Hat
The past in one picture: the oldest view of one of its historic places. It opens full screen with a tap.
Public domain or CC0, made before 1950, from Wikimedia Commons; old views of places can be drawings, prints or maps of their time. Each credit opens the image’s page.
How it began
Medicine Hat’s milestones, starting in 1883
The name of Medicine Hat honours headgear, any covering for the head; element of clothing which is worn on one's head. Medicine Hat was known as Town of Medicine Hat until 1906. On paper, Medicine Hat became a city in 1906.
By 1906 the place had a station: Medicine Hat railway station. For the municipality of Medicine Hat itself, Wikidata records 1883, a date that can be a founding as much as a merger.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designations
Names show on hover, and a tap takes you to the place’s page.
The 4, by tier
3 Highest designations1 Other federal designations
The federal directory kept by Parks Canada supplies most of these places; provincial and municipal lists outside Québec aren’t open data, so only the ones Wikidata documents with an article appear.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Highest designations
3 places in Medicine Hat with the highest designation
Medicine Hat Clay Industries is the earliest, from 1909; the latest dates from 1912. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. They were designated between 1985 and 2000. Each one opens its own page.
The biggest share of Medicine Hat’s homes dates from 1961 to 1980: 31%
From 2016 to 2021 Medicine Hat added 3% of its homes, less than the typical town’s 4.1%. Medicine Hat has an unusual share of homes built from 2001 to 2015: 23%, where most towns have 15%. Before 1961: 17% of Medicine Hat’s homes, near the usual 18%.
17%
Before 1961
31%
1961–80
25%
1981–2000
23%
2001–15
3%
2016–21
Medicine HatTypical town
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Born here
6 people born in Medicine Hat before 1914
Longest lived was Gwendolyn Black, 94 years in all (2005). By Wikipedia’s reach, Doug Young leads, with 5 articles. The line ends with Janet Mitchell (1912). Doug Young comes first, born in 1908.
Doug Young
B. C. Binning
John Kenneth Jamieson
Gwendolyn Black
Hugh Alexander Bryson
Janet Mitchell
190019251950
DY
Doug Young1908–1990 · Canadian ice hockey player
GB
Gwendolyn Black1911–2005 · Canadian musician and social activist
HB
Hugh Alexander Bryson1912–1987 · Canadian politician
BB
B. C. Binning1909–1976 · Canadian artist
JJ
John Kenneth Jamieson1910–1999 · American industrial, chair of Exxon
JM
Janet Mitchell1912–1998 · Canadian painter, born 1912
Everyone born in Medicine Hat → Born before 1914 (the page’s periods: Confederation to the First World War). Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against the person’s Wikipedia article.
Towns its size
Medicine Hat has the 2nd most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 61,700 to 75,600 residents, by places on the registers.
Medicine Hat holds 4 historic places on Canada’s registers, 3 with the highest designation, including Medicine Hat Clay Industries. Only one of the 16 towns nearest its size has more historic places. Among the lives from its past: Doug Young (1908), Gwendolyn Black (1911) and Hugh Alexander Bryson (1912). Before 1961: just 17% of its homes, against 18% in the typical town. For the rest, the designations ran from 1985 to 2000.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
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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.
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Provincial and municipal lists. Only Wikidata gives open access to listings on provincial and municipal registers outside Québec; without an article such a place is counted but not paged.
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Map points. Pins for federal places come from Wikidata rather than Parks Canada, which gives no points.
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The grade. There is no history grade: the page sets out the record and compares it with other towns.
•
The federal register. Federal places come from Parks Canada’s directory, which counts National Historic Sites, federal heritage buildings, stations and lighthouses; their statements are the register’s own.
•
The tiers. Tiers follow the designation: national recognition and classement first, other federal designations next, provincial and local listings last.
•
People and events. Persons of national historic significance come with no location; a town gets one only by birthplace (name and both life years agreeing) or by one of its own places that bears the name and whose record tells the story. Events, which can’t be tied, are left out.
Questions about Medicine Hat’s history
Which places in Medicine Hat have the highest designation?
They are Medicine Hat Clay Industries, Medalta Potteries and St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church.
What is the oldest building in Medicine Hat?
Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Medicine Hat, Alberta — its record dates it to 1906 (Heritage Railway Station).
Why might a heritage building in Medicine Hat be missing here?
Its province’s and council’s own lists can’t be reused here; 7 further listings in Medicine Hat show up only as Wikidata numbers.
How old are the homes in Medicine Hat?
Before 1961: 17% of its homes; the typical town has 18%.
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.
c. 1906
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