Cox Terrace · Photo: Phillip Chee from Peterborough, ON, Canada. Please credit the author with every use · CC BY 2.0
6historic places on the registers
History of Peterborough · Canada’s heritage registers
6 historic places in Peterborough, 3 of them top designations
Before 1961: 36% of Peterborough’s homes, where most towns have 18%. The earliest construction date, 1837, belongs to Cathedral of Saint Peter-in-Chains. Measured against its size, Peterborough’s 0.6 per 10,000 residents puts it ahead of 75% of Canadian towns. Among the places are 3 provincial or municipal listings.
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Provincial and local listings
3
provincial and municipal listings with an encyclopedia article
Oldest building
1837
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
36%
typical town: 18%
In pictures
6 photos of Peterborough’s landmarks, and 7 from before 1950
The set opens with Cox Terrace and Peterborough Drill Hall / Armoury. Photos show every place Peterborough’s registers name. Open a place’s page for its old views: 3 places in Peterborough have them.
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
Peterborough between 1909 and 1914
4 old photographs of the town, then the oldest views of 3 of its historic places, set out by date. 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
Peterborough’s early dates, from 1819
As a municipality, Peterborough carries the date 1819 on Wikidata: a founding, an incorporation or an amalgamation. Peterborough was incorporated as a town in 1850 and a city in 1905.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsProvincial and local listings
Names show on hover, and a tap takes you to the place’s page.
The 6, by tier
3 Highest designations3 Provincial and local listings
Federal designations come from Parks Canada’s directory; a province’s or a council’s own listing shows here only when Wikidata holds it and an encyclopedia covers it.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Highest designations
3 places in Peterborough with the highest designation
Cox Terrace is the earliest, from 1884; the latest dates from 1907. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Designations came from 1979 to 1991. Each one opens its own page.
National Historic Site · 1884–1885Cox Terrace332-344 Rubidge StreetPhoto: Phillip Chee from Peterborough, ON, Canada. Please credit the author with every use · CC BY 2.0 · Commons file
Peterborough’s largest group: churches and religious buildings, 33%
The record covers 5 kinds of building and site. Leading by designation: Cox Terrace and Peterborough Lift Lock.
Churches and religious buildings2
Houses1
Mills, shops and works1
Forts and military buildings1
Stations, lighthouses and bridges1
Grouped by what each register says the place is or was; a converted building counts as what it was built for.
Provincial and local listings
On provincial and local lists in Peterborough: 3 places
Provincial and municipal listings that Wikidata records and an encyclopedia describes. Cathedral of Saint Peter-in-Chains is the earliest, from 1837; the latest dates from 1890. Each one opens its own page.
Peterborough’s dated places lean to the decades after Confederation
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
British North America 1760–18662
After Confederation 1867–19134
Wars and Depression 1914–19450
Since 1946 1946 on0
2 of the 6 dated places were built before Confederation.
Homes by age
Only 3.1% of Peterborough’s homes were built from 2016 to 2021 (4.1% is typical)
More than half of Peterborough’s housing predates 1981. Building from 1961 to 1980 gave Peterborough 28% of its homes, near the usual 27%. 21% of Peterborough’s homes were built from 1981 to 2000, close to the typical town’s 23%.
36%
Before 1961
28%
1961–80
21%
1981–2000
12%
2001–15
3.1%
2016–21
PeterboroughTypical 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
Natives of Peterborough from 1840 to 1910
Of the 38, 25 were born in the decades after Confederation. There are 38 people born here before 1914 with an article to show for it. The widest known is Manly P. Hall: 32 Wikipedia editions. Trevor Kincaid reached 98, the longest life here, ending in 1970. Only the 20 best known fit the timeline.
William J. Morgan
Abraham Groves
Alexander Bethune
Robert Smeaton White
Richard Birdsall Rogers
Joseph Flavelle
Robert Francis Green
Trevor Kincaid
Roland Fairbairn McWilliams
Oscar O'Shea
Harry Young
Walter Miller
Willard Price
Melville Marks Robinson
Harold Greenwood
John Victor Sorsoleil
George Redding
Manly P. Hall
Alden John Bell
Doug Brennan
1800182518501875190019251950
Manly P. Hall1901–1990 · Canadian writer and mystic
Harold Greenwood1894–1978 · British ice hockey player
AB
Alden John Bell1904–1982 · Roman Catholic bishop
Richard Birdsall Rogers1857–1927 · Canadian engineer
Robert Francis Green1861–1946 · Canadian politician
RM
Roland Fairbairn McWilliams1874–1957 · Canadian politician
Oscar O'Shea1881–1960 · Canadian-born American actor
Everyone born in Peterborough → Born before 1914 (the page’s periods: Confederation to the First World War). Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against the person’s Wikipedia article.
Peterborough has 36% of its homes from before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. All told, the registers hold 6 historic places, 3 with the highest designation. 4 of the 6 dated places belong to the decades after Confederation. Of its people of the past, the best known are Manly P. Hall (1901), Trevor Kincaid (1872) and Harold Greenwood (1894). For the rest, 6 historic places is about usual for its size (the median is 3); and the designations ran from 1979 to 1991.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Provincial and municipal lists. The local and provincial lists outside Québec aren’t published openly, so this page counts what Wikidata records and pages only the places an encyclopedia describes.
•
Map points. Where a federal place sits on the map is Wikidata’s placing; the directory itself has no coordinates.
•
The tiers. The highest designations are National Historic Sites, Classified Federal Heritage Buildings and Québec’s classements; then come the other federal designations; then provincial and local listings.
•
Protection. National historic designation honours a place but binds only federal owners; a private building’s protection depends on its province or municipality.
•
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.
•
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.
•
The grade. This page gives no grade; history doesn’t count toward a Canadian town’s letter.
Questions about Peterborough’s history
How old are the homes in Peterborough?
Before 1961: 36% of its homes; the typical town has 18%.
Which places in Peterborough have the highest designation?
Cox Terrace, Peterborough Lift Lock and Peterborough Drill Hall / Armoury.
What is the oldest building in Peterborough?
By its record, Cathedral of Saint Peter-in-Chains, from 1837 (Designated heritage property (part IV)).
Why might a heritage building in Peterborough be missing here?
Its province’s and council’s own lists can’t be reused here; 48 further listings in Peterborough 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.
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c. 1910
c. 1910
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