LocalMunicipally Registered Property · 1935Yarmouth County Museum & ArchivesPhoto: Dan Conlin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons file
Photo: Nova Scotia Archives · Public domain1historic place on the registers
History of Yarmouth · Canada’s heritage registers
47% of Yarmouth’s homes were built before 1961
Yarmouth has 2.7 times what the typical town has (18%). On the registers, the town counts 1 historic place. It is Yarmouth County Museum & Archives, a municipally registered property begun in 1935. Wikidata’s date for the municipality is June 9, 1761; it may record a founding, an incorporation or an amalgamation.
Historic places
1
1.4 per 10,000 residents
Highest designations
0
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Provincial and local listings
1
provincial and municipal listings with an encyclopedia article
Oldest building
1935
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
47%
typical town: 18%
In pictures
A look at historic Yarmouth
One place in Yarmouth is on the registers, and this is it: Yarmouth County Museum & Archives.
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
Yarmouth as it looked, 1902 to 1931
Here in time order: 5 old photographs of the town. Tap any picture to see it full screen.
1902
c. 1905
c. 1907
c. 1908
1931Public 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 Yarmouth’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Provincial and local listings
Each dot is a place: point at it for the name, tap it for its page.
The 1, by tier
1 Provincial and local listings
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.
Provincial and local listings
One local listing in Yarmouth
Provincial and municipal listings that Wikidata records and an encyclopedia describes. Each one opens its own page.
Around the town
The highest designation, once, within 25 km of Yarmouth
The first one out is Cape Forchu Lighthouse, 4.8 km away in Yarmouth. Argyle Township Court House and Gaol, 11 km off, is the oldest: 1802. They are 3 provincial or municipal listings and a National Historic Site.
The 4 nearest, within 25 km
| Cape Forchu LighthouseMunicipally Registered Property · 1839 · 4.8 km away, in Yarmouth |
| Chebogue CemeteryMunicipally Registered Property · 6.8 km away, in Yarmouth |
| Argyle Township Court House and GaolNational Historic Site · 1802–1806 · 11 km away, in Argyle |
| Sainte Anne's Catholic ChurchMunicipally Registered Property · 1901 · 14 km away, in Argyle |
Homes by age
Only 3.1% of Yarmouth’s homes were built from 2016 to 2021 (4.1% is typical)
Half of the homes standing in Yarmouth today were built before 1981. Yarmouth built little from 2001 to 2015: 5.7% of its homes, where most towns have 15%. Homes built from 1961 to 1980 make up 24% of Yarmouth’s, about the typical 27%.
47%
Before 1961
24%
1961–80
20%
1981–2000
5.7%
2001–15
3.1%
2016–21
YarmouthTypical 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
39 people born in Yarmouth before 1914
The decades after Confederation gave 20 of the 39. Keith R. Porter closes the list, born in 1912. Ralph H. Wetmore reached 97, the longest life here, ending in 1989. Fame, by Wikipedia: George Kenney first, in 15 languages. The timeline shows the 20 best known.
John Patch
Jesse Shaw
Thomas Killam
Nathan Moses
Benjamin B. Redding
George Stayley Brown
Augustus Stoneman
John Lovitt
Cecilia Viets Jamison
Frank Killam
Albert Clements Killam
Daniel George McKenzie
Florence Parr Gere
Mabel Killam Day
Edgar Archibald
George Kenney
Paul Smart
Ralph H. Wetmore
Thomas Andrew Murray Kirk
Keith R. Porter
175017751800182518501875190019251950
George Kenney1889–1977 · United States Army general
Paul Smart1892–1979 · American sailor
CJ
Cecilia Viets Jamison1837–1909 · Canadian writer
KP
Keith R. Porter1912–1997 · American biologist
Albert Clements Killam1849–1908 · Canadian politician
RW
Ralph H. Wetmore1892–1989 · Professor of Botany at Harvard University from 1926 until 1962
Benjamin B. Redding1824–1882 · American politician
Florence Parr Gere1875– · Canadian-born American pianist and composer
Everyone born in Yarmouth → 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
Yarmouth has the 4th most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 7,100 to 7,200 residents, by places on the registers.
Yarmouth1
Just these have more: L'Ange-Gardien, Les Cèdres and Hope. Their median is 0. For 9, the registers list nothing.
Neighbours
Yarmouth and its neighbours
In brief
Yarmouth in brief
Counted by age, 47% of Yarmouth’s homes predate 1961, against 18% in the typical town. All told, the registers hold 1 historic place. Only 3 of the 16 towns nearest its size have more historic places. George Kenney (1889), Paul Smart (1892) and Cecilia Viets Jamison (1837) are the best known of its historic lives.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Provincial and municipal lists. Outside Québec, provinces’ and municipalities’ heritage registers aren’t open data; their places are known only through Wikidata items with a register number, and only those with an encyclopedia article get a page.
- Map points. Parks Canada publishes no coordinates, so federal places are pinned where Wikidata puts them.
- 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.
- 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.
- Protection. A National Historic Site designation recognises significance; it doesn’t by itself protect a building the federal government doesn’t own. Legal protection comes from provincial and municipal designations, whose own registers aren’t open data outside Québec.
- 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.
- The grade. History is described, not graded, for every Canadian town.
Questions about Yarmouth’s history
How old are the homes in Yarmouth?
47% predate 1961, where the typical town has 18%.
How many historic places does Yarmouth have on the registers?
The registers list 1 historic place inside Yarmouth.
What is the oldest building in Yarmouth?
Yarmouth County Museum & Archives — its record dates it to 1935 (Municipally Registered Property).
Why might a heritage building in Yarmouth be missing here?
Provincial and municipal registers outside Québec aren’t open data. Wikidata knows 44 more listings in Yarmouth, 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).