TopNational Historic Site · 1830–1831Harbour Grace Court House2 Harvey StreetPhoto: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons file
Harbour Grace Court House · Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 3.01historic place on the registers
History of Harbour Grace · Canada’s heritage registers
Heritage in Harbour Grace: 1 historic place of the highest rank
Scaled to its population Harbour Grace’s record is long: 3.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 91% of Canadian towns. That place is Harbour Grace Court House, a national historic site, from 1830. The municipality’s date on Wikidata is 1610: a founding, an incorporation or an amalgamation, the record doesn’t say which. 16 further listings on provincial or municipal registers are known only through Wikidata, so they have no page of their own.
Historic places
1
3.5 per 10,000 residents
Highest designations
1
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Oldest building
1830
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
26%
typical town: 18%
Through time
Old pictures of Harbour Grace
From before 1950 comes one old photograph of the town. Tap it to see it full screen.
c. 1919Public 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.
The map
Where Harbour Grace’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designations
Names show on hover, and a tap takes you to the place’s page.
The 1, by tier
1 Highest 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.
Highest designations
One place in Harbour Grace with the highest designation
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
Around the town
3 places of national importance within 25 km of Harbour Grace
Among them are 3 National Historic Sites and 2 provincial or municipal listings. The earliest date is Hawthorne Cottage’s, 1830, 17 km away. At 5.7 km, Former Carbonear Railway Station (Newfoundland Railway) in Carbonear is the closest.
The 5 nearest, within 25 km
| Former Carbonear Railway Station (Newfoundland Railway)National Historic Site · 1917–1919 · 5.7 km away, in Carbonear |
| Cable BuildingNational Historic Site · 1913–1914 · 10 km away, in Bay Roberts |
| Kent CottageRegistered heritage structure · 16 km away, in Division No. 1, Subdivision M |
| Brigus Stone BarnRegistered heritage structure · 17 km away, in Division No. 1, Subdivision M |
| Hawthorne CottageNational Historic Site · 1830–1831 · 17 km away, in Division No. 1, Subdivision M |
Homes by age
New homes are rare in Harbour Grace: 1.9% from 2016–21, against a usual 4.1%
Homes from before 1961 make up 26% of Harbour Grace’s housing; the typical town has 18%. Harbour Grace’s largest group of homes, 39%, went up from 1961 to 1980. Count back from today and half of Harbour Grace’s homes are older than 1981.
26%
Before 1961
39%
1961–80
20%
1981–2000
14%
2001–15
1.9%
2016–21
Harbour GraceTypical 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
Lives that started in Harbour Grace, 1818–1880
The record holds 4 people born here before 1914. Best known is Thomas George Roddick, with articles in 3 Wikipedia languages. Longest lived was Jabez P. Thompson, 86 years in all (1938).
John Fox
Thomas George Roddick
Jabez P. Thompson
John Shannon Munn
1800182518501875190019251950
Thomas George Roddick1846–1923 · Canadian politician
JF
John Fox1818–1871 · Canadian merchant and political figure in Newfoundland
John Shannon Munn1880–1918 · Newfoundland businessman
JT
Jabez P. Thompson1852–1938 · Newfoundland politician
Everyone born in Harbour Grace → 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
Harbour Grace has the most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 2,900 to 2,900 residents, by places on the registers.
Harbour Grace1
The middle one has 0. 15 of them have nothing on the registers.
Neighbours
Harbour Grace and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbour Grace | 2,872 | 1 | 1 | 1830 |
| Upper Island Cove | 1,553 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Carbonear | 5,041 | 1 | 1 | 1917 |
| Spaniard's Bay | 2,664 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Victoria | 1,837 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Bay Roberts | 6,407 | 1 | 1 | 1913 |
In brief
Harbour Grace in brief
Housing in Harbour Grace includes 26% built before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. There are 1 historic place in all, one with the highest designation; Harbour Grace Court House heads them. Of the 16 towns closest in size, it has the most historic places. Among the lives from its past: Thomas George Roddick (1846), John Fox (1818) and John Shannon Munn (1880). For the rest, its designation dates from 1966.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The tiers. Tiers follow the designation: national recognition and classement first, other federal designations next, provincial and local listings last.
- Protection. Being on these registers doesn’t mean a building can’t change. Federal designation commemorates; protection is provincial or municipal, and those lists aren’t open here.
- The grade. There is no history grade: the page sets out the record and compares it with other towns.
- The federal register. Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations lists every National Historic Site, federal heritage building, heritage railway station and lighthouse; the Canadian Register of Historic Places adds their statements in English and French.
- People and events. The open directory puts its national historic persons nowhere, so a town shows one only on firm ground: a birth there, matched by name and life years, or a historic place there named for the person whose record says so. Events are left out.
- Provincial and municipal lists. Provincial and municipal listings here come from Wikidata alone, since the provinces’ own registers can’t be reused; a listing needs an encyclopedia article to get a page.
- Map points. Where a federal place sits on the map is Wikidata’s placing; the directory itself has no coordinates.
Questions about Harbour Grace’s history
Which places in Harbour Grace have the highest designation?
It is Harbour Grace Court House.
What is the oldest building in Harbour Grace?
Harbour Grace Court House (National Historic Site): the first construction date on its record is 1830.
How old are the homes in Harbour Grace?
26% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town.
Why might a heritage building in Harbour Grace be missing here?
Only federal designations are fully open outside Québec. 16 more listings in Harbour Grace are known through Wikidata alone, so they are counted, not paged.
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).