Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Valentin8107 · CC BY-SA 4.0Vernon’s oldest dated place, Brigadier Murphy Armoury, goes back to 1913. For every 10,000 residents Vernon has 0.4, ahead of 73% of Canadian towns. The record has 2 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings.
On one line by date: 4 old photographs of the town. Pick a dot to see the year; pick a picture to see it large.
c. 1915
c. 1915
c. 1916
c. 1916Public 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.
For the municipality of Vernon itself, Wikidata records December 30, 1892, a date that can be a founding as much as a merger. Vernon was incorporated as a city in 1892.
How it began: Wikidata (CC0); dates read from English Wikipedia’s article “Vernon, British Columbia”, revision 1383951618 (CC BY-SA 4.0), and stated in our own words.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations lists the places the Government of Canada has recognized; outside Québec, provincial and municipal listings come only through Wikidata, and only those with an encyclopedia article get a page.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there. 2 places, placed by their register’s municipality, have no point and aren’t on the map.
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. The oldest, Brigadier Murphy Armoury, dates from 1913; the newest from 1956. Each one opens its own page.
The mix: 3 provincial or municipal listings, 2 heritage railway stations and a National Historic Site. “Canadian National Railway Station, Kelowna, British Columbia” in Kelowna is the nearest, 43 km away. 6 places lie within 100 km.
| Canadian National Railway Station, Kelowna, British ColumbiaHeritage Railway Station · 1926–1927 · 43 km away, in Kelowna |
| Myra Canyon Section of the Kettle Valley RailwayNational Historic Site · 1912–1915 · 51 km away, in Central Okanagan |
| Kamloops Memorial ArenaListed in a community heritage register · 87 km away, in Kamloops |
| NaramataBritish Columbia designated provincial heritage site · 88 km away, in Penticton |
| Canadian National Railway Station, Kamloops, British ColumbiaHeritage Railway Station · 1926–1928 · 88 km away, in Kamloops |
| SicamousHeritage designation · 88 km away, in Penticton |
Half of the homes standing in Vernon today were built before 2001. At 12%, Vernon’s share of pre-1961 homes is under the typical town’s 18%. The busiest building years in Vernon were from 1961 to 1980, which account for 32% of today’s homes.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vernon | 49,527 | 2 | 0 | 1913 |
| Electoral Area C, North Okanagan | 5,029 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Electoral Area B, North Okanagan | 3,415 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Coldstream | 11,380 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Okanagan (Part) 1 | 3,482 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Spallumcheen | 5,843 | 0 | 0 | — |
Canada’s heritage lists give Vernon 2 historic places. Counted by age, only 12% of its homes come from before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it has 2 historic places, about typical for a town its size (the middle one has 2); its past has one life on the record, Frederick McCall (1896); and all its places were designated in 1997.
Inside Vernon: 2 historic places.
Brigadier Murphy Armoury — its record dates it to 1913 (Recognized Federal Heritage Building).
12% predate 1961, where 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.
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).