Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Billy Bishop Boyhood Home · Photo: Rjsbird287 · CC BY-SA 3.0Against 18% in the typical town, Owen Sound has 2.5 times the share. Canada’s heritage registers list 2 historic places inside the town, one with the highest designation. Counted by designation, there are a heritage railway station. The oldest dated place, Billy Bishop Boyhood Home, goes back to 1884.
Both places on Owen Sound’s registers have a photo here. The first two: Billy Bishop Boyhood Home and “Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Owen Sound, Ontario”.
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.
One picture from before 1950: one old photograph of the town. Tap the picture to enlarge it.
1910Public 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 date Wikidata keeps for Owen Sound is 1857; whether it was a founding or a legal act, the entry leaves open. Owen Sound is named after Edward Owen. The first railway station on record, Owen Sound Railway Station, opened in 1946.
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.
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
The mix: 3 heritage lighthouses, a National Historic Site and a Classified Federal Heritage Building. Tower, 38 km off, is the oldest: 1855. Donaldson Site in Port Elgin is the nearest, 32 km away.
| Donaldson SiteNational Historic Site · 32 km away, in Port Elgin |
| Saugeen River Rear Range LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 1903–1904 · 35 km away, in Port Elgin |
| Saugeen River Front Range LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 1903–1904 · 35 km away, in Port Elgin |
| McNab Point LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 1877–1878 · 38 km away, in Port Elgin |
| TowerClassified Federal Heritage Building · 1855–1860 · 38 km away, in Port Elgin |
Only 6.9% of Owen Sound’s homes were built from 2001 to 2015, less than the typical town’s 15%. Half of the homes standing in Owen Sound today were built before 1981. In Owen Sound, 29% of homes date from 1961 to 1980, much as in most towns (27%).
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
At 95, Archibald K. Gardner outlived the rest, dying in 1962. The record holds 24 people born here before 1914. Fame, by Wikipedia: Billy Bishop first, in 23 languages. 18 of the 24 were born in the decades after Confederation. The timeline shows the 20 best known.
Everyone born in Owen Sound → 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 of 23,700 to 24,500 residents, by places on the registers.
Just one has more: Brockville. The typical town its size has 1. 8 of them have none.
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owen Sound | 24,075 | 2 | 1 | 1884 |
| Georgian Bluffs | 12,061 | 0 | 0 | — |
Housing in Owen Sound includes 44% built before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. All told, the registers hold 2 historic places, one with the highest designation, Billy Bishop Boyhood Home among them. Of the 16 towns closest in size, just one has more historic places. Its people of the past include Billy Bishop (1894), Hap Day (1901) and Elizabeth Laird (1874). For the rest, the list grew between 1996 and 2002.
The 2021 Census dates 44% of its homes before 1961 (18% in the typical town).
Just one: Billy Bishop Boyhood Home.
Billy Bishop Boyhood Home — its record dates it to 1884 (National Historic Site).
Provincial and municipal registers outside Québec aren’t open data. Wikidata knows 2 more listings in Owen Sound, 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).
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