Recognized Federal Heritage Building · 1916–1917Saanichton Centre for Plant Health, Building 288801 Saanich Road East
Photo: Sidney Museum · CC BY-SA 3.01historic place on the registers
History of Sidney · Canada’s heritage registers
Sidney has 1 historic place on the registers
In Sidney that place is Saanichton Centre for Plant Health, Building 28, a recognized federal heritage building, from 1916. Homes from before 1961 are 5.2% of the stock, under the 18% of the typical town. Sidney has 0.7 for every 10,000 people, a higher rate than 77% of Canadian towns.
Historic places
1
0.7 per 10,000 residents
Highest designations
0
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Other federal designations
1
Recognized buildings, railway stations, lighthouses
Oldest building
1916
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
5.2%
typical town: 18%
The map
Where Sidney’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
The 1, by tier
1 Other federal designations
What the map shows is the open record: the federal directory in full, and from provincial or municipal lists only the places Wikidata ties to an encyclopedia article.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there. One place, placed by its register’s municipality, has no point and isn’t on the map.
Other federal designations
One more federal designation in Sidney
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
Around the town
The closest heritage to Sidney is Butchart Gardens, 11 km off
The record reaches back to 1853 with Craigflower Manor House, 23 km away. They stand in 8 towns, Colwood, Victoria and Saanich among them. All told, 17 places are within 25 km.
The 12 nearest, within 25 km
| Butchart GardensNational Historic Site · 1904–1940 · 11 km away, in Central Saanich |
| Tod InletProvincially Recognized Heritage Site · 11 km away, in Juan de Fuca (Part 1) |
| Dominion Astrophysical ObservatoryNational Historic Site · 1914–1919 · 15 km away, in Saanich |
| Kinsol TrestleListed in a community heritage register · 21 km away, in Shawnigan |
| Craigflower SchoolhouseNational Historic Site · 1854–1856 · 22 km away, in Saanich |
| Craigflower Manor HouseNational Historic Site · 1853–1857 · 23 km away, in View Royal |
| 1114 Arthur Currie LaneHeritage designation · 24 km away, in Victoria |
| Point Ellice House / O'Reilly HouseNational Historic Site · 1861–1865 · 24 km away, in Victoria |
| Bay Street SubstationListed in a community heritage register · 24 km away, in Victoria |
| Bay Street Drill HallNational Historic Site · 1914–1916 · 25 km away, in Victoria |
| Grant Block, Building 24Recognized Federal Heritage Building · 1942–1943 · 25 km away, in Colwood |
| Guardhouse, Upper BatteryRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 1895–1899 · 25 km away, in Colwood |
Homes by age
New homes stand out in Sidney: 8.2% from 2016–21, where most towns have 4.1%
Sidney’s largest group of homes, 39%, went up from 1961 to 1980. 35% of Sidney’s homes were built from 1981 to 2000, more than the typical town’s 23%. Count back from today and half of Sidney’s homes are older than 2001.
5.2%
Before 1961
39%
1961–80
35%
1981–2000
13%
2001–15
8.2%
2016–21
SidneyTypical town
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Towns its size
Sidney has the 3rd most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 13,300 to 13,500 residents, by places on the registers.
Sidney1
Just these have more: Glebe-Dows Lake and Durand. The middle one has 0. 12 of them have none.
Neighbours
Sidney and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sidney | 13,445 | 1 | 0 | 1916 |
| North Saanich | 12,986 | 0 | 0 | — |
| East Saanich 2 | 1,962 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Central Saanich | 18,184 | 1 | 1 | 1904 |
| Electoral Area A, Cowichan Valley | 5,156 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Cobble Hill | 5,074 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Highlands | 2,753 | 0 | 0 | — |
In brief
Sidney in brief
All told, Sidney has 1 historic place. Of the 16 towns closest in size, just 2 have more historic places. Its oldest homes, those from before 1961, are 5.2% of the total, against 18% in the typical town. The other figures are unremarkable: one person of its past, Alexander McDonald (1876); and its one place was designated in 1994.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- The grade. History is described, not graded, for every Canadian town.
- 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.
- 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 tiers. Three tiers: the top for National Historic Sites, classified federal buildings and Québec’s classements, a second for the other federal designations, a third for provincial and municipal listings.
- 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 Sidney’s history
How many historic places does Sidney have on the registers?
The registers list 1 historic place inside Sidney.
How old are the homes in Sidney?
The 2021 Census dates 5.2% of its homes before 1961 (18% in the typical town).
What is the oldest building in Sidney?
Saanichton Centre for Plant Health, Building 28 (Recognized Federal Heritage Building): the first construction date on its record is 1916.
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).