TopNational Historic Site · 1787Carrying Place of the Bay of QuinteHighway 33 (Loyalist Parkway) at Highway 64 (Old Portage Road)Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons file
Photo: unknown. Canada. Department of National Defence. · Public domain2historic places on the registers
History of Picton · Canada’s heritage registers
Picton’s oldest designated place, Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte, dates from 1787
The typical town has 18% of its homes from before 1961; Picton has 35%. The registers put 2 historic places inside its boundary, one of them of the highest rank. The list takes in a heritage lighthouse. As a municipality it dates, by Wikidata, from 1792, a date that can mark incorporation or a merger as well as a founding.
Historic places
2
0.7 per 10,000 residents
Highest designations
1
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Other federal designations
1
Recognized buildings, railway stations, lighthouses
Oldest building
1787
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
35%
typical town: 18%
In pictures
Places to see in Picton
Pictured: Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte, on Picton’s heritage registers.
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
Old pictures of Picton
A single old picture: one old photograph of the town. Tap it to see it full screen.
c. 1905Public 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 Picton’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designations
Each dot is a place: point at it for the name, tap it for its page.
The 2, by tier
1 Highest designations1 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.
Highest designations
The highest rank in Picton: one place
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
Other federal designations
Federal heritage in Picton: one more place
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
Heritage Lighthouse · 1853–1856Scotch Bonnet Island Lighthouse
Around the town
4 places of the highest rank within 25 km of Picton
At 17 km, Glanmore / Phillips-Faulkner House in Belleville is the closest. Belleville, Greater Napanee and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory hold most of them, among 3 towns. The earliest date is Old Hay Bay Church’s, 1792, 21 km away.
The 5 nearest, within 25 km
| Glanmore / Phillips-Faulkner HouseNational Historic Site · 1882–1884 · 17 km away, in Belleville |
| ArmouryRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 1907–1909 · 18 km away, in Belleville |
| Belleville Railway Station (Grand Trunk)National Historic Site · 1856–1857 · 19 km away, in Belleville |
| Old Hay Bay ChurchNational Historic Site · 1792–1793 · 21 km away, in Greater Napanee |
| Christ Church, Her Majesty's Chapel Royal of the MohawkNational Historic Site · 1843–1844 · 23 km away, in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory |
Just outside Picton: 1
| Prince Edward Point LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 100 m outside the town |
Homes by age
A growing town: 7.7% of Picton’s homes went up from 2016 to 2021, against 4.1%
Count back from today and half of Picton’s homes are older than 1981. Building from 1961 to 1980 gave Picton 23% of its homes, near the usual 27%. In Picton, 21% of homes date from 1981 to 2000, much as in most towns (23%).
35%
Before 1961
23%
1961–80
21%
1981–2000
14%
2001–15
7.7%
2016–21
PictonTypical 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 Picton from 1819 to 1908
8 Wikipedias cover Gena Branscombe, the most of anyone here. Wikidata and Wikipedia agree on 31 births here before 1914. Of them all, Gena Branscombe lived longest: 96 years, until 1977. Most of them, 17 of 31, came into the world in the decades after Confederation. The timeline keeps to the 20 best known.
James Simeon McCuaig
George Henry Boulter
Samuel Stanley Peck
Daniel Maloney
Sanger Brown
Rodmond Roblin
Casey Albert Wood
Herbert Charles Wilson
Charles P. Gruppé
John Irwin
Morley Currie
Thomas Donald Caven
John Hubbs
Gena Branscombe
Harry C. Hatch
Arthur G. Dorland
John Aaron Weese
Ralph Campney
Charles MacSorley
Norris Whitney
1800182518501875190019251950
Gena Branscombe1881–1977 · Canadian composer
Rodmond Roblin1853–1937 · Canadian politician
Casey Albert Wood1856–1942 · Canadian-American ophthalmologist and ornithologist
Herbert Charles Wilson1859–1909 · Canadian politician
Charles P. Gruppé1860–1940 · American artist
Ralph Campney1894–1967 · Canadian politician
James Simeon McCuaig1819–1888 · Canadian politician
George Henry Boulter1825–1894 · Canadian politician
Everyone born in Picton → 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
Picton has the 4th most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 27,200 to 27,800 residents, by places on the registers.
Picton2
Ahead of it: Amherstburg, La Prairie and Sainte-Thérèse. The middle one has 0. 10 of them have none.
Neighbours
Picton and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Picton | 27,544 | 2 | 1 | 1787 |
| Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory | 3,028 | 1 | 1 | 1843 |
In brief
Picton in brief
Before 1961: 35% of Picton’s homes, against 18% in the typical town. All told, the registers hold 2 historic places, one with the highest designation, Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte among them. Just 3 towns of its size, out of 16, have more historic places. Of its people of the past, the best known are Gena Branscombe (1881), Rodmond Roblin (1853) and Casey Albert Wood (1856). Everything else is close to the norm: the list grew between 1929 and 2015.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 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.
- The tiers. National Historic Sites and the most protected buildings form the top tier; recognized federal buildings, stations and lighthouses the second; provincial and municipal listings the third.
- 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.
- The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
- 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.
- Map points. Parks Canada publishes no coordinates, so federal places are pinned where Wikidata puts them.
Questions about Picton’s history
What is the oldest building in Picton?
Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte (National Historic Site): the first construction date on its record is 1787.
How old are the homes in Picton?
35% predate 1961, where the typical town has 18%.
Which places in Picton have the highest designation?
Just one: Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte.
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).