Against 18% in the typical town, Goderich has 2.6 times the share. On the registers the town counts 3 historic places, one at the top. Only a few towns match it per resident: 3.6 for every 10,000, ahead of 92% of Canadian towns. Huron County Gaol, begun in 1839, is the oldest by its record.
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Provincial and local listings
2
provincial and municipal listings with an encyclopedia article
Oldest building
1839
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
45%
typical town: 18%
In pictures
Goderich in 3 photos and 4 old pictures
Every place on Goderich’s registers has a photo here. Old pictures of 2 places in Goderich fill their own pages. Two worth a look first: Huron County Gaol and Goderich Train Station.
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
Goderich, 1910 to 1937
In order of date: 4 old photographs of the town. Each dot on the line is a picture; tap one to open it full screen.
1890190019101920193019401950Confederation to 1900Boom yearsThe wars and betweenAfter the war
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
Back to 1827: Goderich’s first record
For the municipality of Goderich itself, Wikidata records 1827, a date that can be a founding as much as a merger. Goderich took its legal form as a town in 1850. The tracks reached Goderich in 1858.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsProvincial and local listings
Each dot is a place: point at it for the name, tap it for its page.
The 3, by tier
1 Highest designations2 Provincial and local listings
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
The highest rank in Goderich: one place
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
On provincial and local lists in Goderich: 2 places
Provincial and municipal listings that Wikidata records and an encyclopedia describes. They date from 1900 (Goderich Train Station) to 1904. Each one opens its own page.
Goderich added few homes from 2016 to 2021: 2.9%, where most towns have 4.1%
More than half of Goderich’s housing predates 1981. Few of Goderich’s homes date from 1981 to 2000: 14%, the norm 23%. Goderich built little from 2001 to 2015: 9.4% of its homes, where most towns have 15%.
45%
Before 1961
29%
1961–80
14%
1981–2000
9.4%
2001–15
2.9%
2016–21
GoderichTypical 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
1838 to 1905: the people Goderich gave its past
Of the 13, 8 were born in the years before Confederation. The record holds 13 people born here before 1914. At 92, William Franklin Kerr outlived the rest, dying in 1968. By Wikipedia’s reach, Walter Cameron Nichol leads, with 5 articles.
C. E. McIntosh
Charles James Hamilton
Malcolm Graeme Cameron
Maurice Macdonald Seymour
Edward Norman Lewis
Eadie Fraser
John Inglis McLaren
Walter Cameron Nichol
Whitey Merritt
Herbert A. Parkyn
William Franklin Kerr
Donald Morrison MacKay
Thomas Joseph McCarthy
1800182518501875190019251950
Walter Cameron Nichol1866–1928 · Canadian journalist
CH
Charles James Hamilton1855–1937 · Canadian politician (Conservative)
MS
Maurice Macdonald Seymour1857–1929 · Physician and surgeon from Canada
EL
Edward Norman Lewis1858–1931 · Canadian politician
Eadie Fraser1860–1886 · Association football player
TM
Thomas Joseph McCarthy1905–1986 · Canadian Catholic bishop
CM
C. E. McIntosh1838–1915 · American politician
MC
Malcolm Graeme Cameron1857–1925 · Canadian lawyer and politician
Everyone born in Goderich → 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
Goderich has the most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 8,400 to 8,400 residents, by places on the registers.
Before 1961: 45% of Goderich’s homes, against 18% in the typical town. Together that makes 3 historic places, one with the highest designation, led by Huron County Gaol. Among the 16 towns nearest its size, none has more historic places. Its people of the past include Walter Cameron Nichol (1866), Charles James Hamilton (1855) and Maurice Macdonald Seymour (1857). For the rest, its one place was designated in 1973.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
The grade. History is described, not graded, for every Canadian town.
•
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.
•
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.
•
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.
•
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.
Questions about Goderich’s history
How old are the homes in Goderich?
45% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town.
Which places in Goderich have the highest designation?
It is Huron County Gaol.
What is the oldest building in Goderich?
By its record, Huron County Gaol, from 1839 (National Historic Site).
Why might a heritage building in Goderich be missing here?
Only federal designations are fully open outside Québec. 28 more listings in Goderich 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.
c. 1910
c. 1910
1913
1937
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