Grassy Island Fort · Photo: cm195902 · CC BY 2.0Grassy Island Fort, from 1720, is Guysborough’s oldest designated place
The lists give Guysborough 2 historic places, one in the top tier. Its 4.2 per 10,000 residents puts it ahead of 94% of Canadian towns. The list takes in a heritage lighthouse. Wikidata’s date for the municipality is 1604; it may record a founding, an incorporation or an amalgamation.
See Guysborough’s history: 2 photos
The photos cover both places on Guysborough’s registers. Grassy Island Fort and Queensport Lighthouse lead the set.
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.
Where Guysborough’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Names show on hover, and a tap takes you to the place’s page.
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.
The highest rank in Guysborough: one place
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
TopOne other place Canada recognizes in Guysborough
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
FedJust outside Guysborough
Places the registers give to the town from within 5 km of its edge, nearest first.
Just outside Guysborough: 3
| Canso IslandsNational Historic Site · 100 m outside the town |
| Light TowerRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 100 m outside the town |
| Old Guysborough Court House MuseumProvincially Registered Property · 200 m outside the town |
Old houses stand out in Guysborough: 29% predate 1961, where most towns have 18%
More of Guysborough’s homes were built from 1961 to 1980 than in any other period: 30%. From 2016 on, Guysborough built only 3.2% of its homes; the typical town built 4.1%. Over half of the homes in Guysborough were already standing by 1981.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Carlyle Smith Beals and 9 more born in Guysborough before 1914
The longest life was Robert A. MacLellan’s: 86 years, to 1968. Of the 10, 6 were born in the years before Confederation. 10 people on the record were born here before 1914. Charles Tory Bruce closes the list, born in 1906.
Everyone born in Guysborough → Born before 1914 (the page’s periods: Confederation to the First World War). Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against the person’s Wikipedia article.
Guysborough has the 4th most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 4,700 to 4,800 residents, by places on the registers.
Just these have more: Château-Richer, Cumberland County, Subdivision D and Riverside Park - Mooneys Bay. The middle one has 0. 10 of them have none.
Guysborough in brief
Guysborough’s homes from before 1961 come to 29%, against 18% in the typical town. All told, the registers hold 2 historic places, one with the highest designation, Grassy Island Fort among them. Just 3 towns of its size, out of 16, have more historic places. Among the lives from its past: Carlyle Smith Beals (1899), Johnny McKinnon (1902) and Charles Tory Bruce (1906). Otherwise the figures are ordinary: its places were designated between 1962 and 2015.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Protection. National historic designation honours a place but binds only federal owners; a private building’s protection depends on its province or municipality.
- People and events. National historic persons carry no place in the open file. They appear on a town’s page when born there (same name, same birth and death years) or when a historic place inside it carries their name and its record names them with their dates; national historic events don’t appear.
- The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
- Map points. Pins for federal places come from Wikidata rather than Parks Canada, which gives no points.
- The tiers. National Historic Sites and the most protected buildings form the top tier; recognized federal buildings, stations and lighthouses the second; provincial and municipal listings the third.
- The federal register. The federal list is complete and open: Parks Canada’s directory for the designations, the Canadian Register of Historic Places for what each one is and why it matters.
Questions about Guysborough’s history
What is the oldest building in Guysborough?
By its record, Grassy Island Fort, from 1720 (National Historic Site).
Which places in Guysborough have the highest designation?
It is Grassy Island Fort.
How old are the homes in Guysborough?
The 2021 Census dates 29% of its homes before 1961 (18% in the typical town).
Why might a heritage building in Guysborough be missing here?
Provincial and municipal registers outside Québec aren’t open data. Wikidata knows 9 more listings in Guysborough, but without an open description or an encyclopedia article they get no page.
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).