Canadian National Railways Allandale Station at Barrie, Allandale / Barrie, Ontario · Photo: Terrysnyder · CC BY-SA 3.0
1historic place on the registers
History of Barrie · Canada’s heritage registers
Barrie: 1 historic place on Canada’s heritage registers
Barrie’s one place is Canadian National Railways Allandale Station at Barrie, Allandale / Barrie, Ontario, a heritage railway station begun in 1900. Relative to its size Barrie has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 71% of Canadian towns. 3 further listings on provincial or municipal registers are known only through Wikidata, so they have no page of their own.
Public 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.
How it began
The record of Barrie, from 1812 on
Barrie got its name in 1833. Its oldest recorded station, Allandale Waterfront GO Station, dates from 1905. 1812 is the date of Barrie’s municipality in Wikidata, and like many such dates it may record a charter, not the first homes.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Other federal designations
Tap any dot to open that place’s own page; hovering shows its name.
The 1, by tier
1 Other federal designations
Most entries are federal, from Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations; local listings outside Québec are known only through Wikidata items with an article.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Other federal designations
One other place Canada recognizes in Barrie
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
The mix: 13 National Historic Sites, 5 provincial or municipal listings and 3 heritage railway stations. By age, Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons Mission leads, from 1639, at 42 km. Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oro-Medonte is the nearest, 15 km away.
Few of Barrie’s homes are older than 1961: 10%, against 18%
The busiest building years in Barrie were from 1981 to 2000, which account for 38% of today’s homes. Homes built from 2001 to 2015 make up 28% of Barrie’s, against 15% in the typical town. Only 19% of Barrie’s homes were built from 1961 to 1980, less than the typical town’s 27%.
10%
Before 1961
19%
1961–80
38%
1981–2000
28%
2001–15
4.7%
2016–21
BarrieTypical 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
Born in Barrie, 1836 to 1913
At 99, Arthur R. M. Lower outlived the rest, dying in 1988. Counting only births before 1914, there are 18. Best known is Hugh Plaxton, with articles in 14 Wikipedia languages. The decades after Confederation gave 15 of the 18.
Charles Augustus Semlin
William Humphrey Bennett
Henry Rushton Fairclough
William Alves Boys
Grindy Forrester
Joseph Forrester
Charles Ernest Tran
Steve Vair
Wallace Warren Cross
Arthur R. M. Lower
Gordon Meeking
Del Irvine
Newton Manly Young
Julian Ferguson
Percy Vivian
Hugh Plaxton
Hap Emms
John Borden Hamilton
1800182518501875190019251950
HP
Hugh Plaxton1904–1982 · Canadian ice hockey player
CS
Charles Augustus Semlin1836–1927 · Canadian politician
William Humphrey Bennett1859–1925 · Canadian politician
HF
Henry Rushton Fairclough1862–1938 · American classical philologist
JF
Julian Ferguson1895–1965 · Canadian politician
Percy Vivian1902–1986 · Canadian politician
Hap Emms1905–1988 · Canadian ice hockey player
William Alves Boys1868–1939 · Canadian politician
Everyone born in Barrie → Born before 1914 (the page’s periods: Confederation to the First World War). Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against the person’s Wikipedia article.
Barrie holds 1 historic place on Canada’s registers. Among the lives from its past: Hugh Plaxton (1904), Charles Augustus Semlin (1836) and William Humphrey Bennett (1859). Most of its homes are post-1960: only 10% came earlier, against 18% in the typical town. For the rest, it has one historic place, about typical for a town its size (the middle one has 5); and its designation dates from 1990.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
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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.
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The tiers. Tiers follow the designation: national recognition and classement first, other federal designations next, provincial and local listings last.
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The grade. There is no history grade: the page sets out the record and compares it with other towns.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Map points. Federal places get their map points from Wikidata, since Parks Canada’s files carry none; they are as mapped there.
Questions about Barrie’s history
How many historic places does Barrie have on the registers?
1 historic place in Barrie, from Canada’s heritage registers.
What is the oldest building in Barrie?
Canadian National Railways Allandale Station at Barrie, Allandale / Barrie, Ontario — its record dates it to 1900 (Heritage Railway Station).
How old are the homes in Barrie?
10% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town.
Why might a heritage building in Barrie be missing here?
Its province’s and council’s own lists can’t be reused here; 3 further listings in Barrie show up only as Wikidata numbers.
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.
c. 1935
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