Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Gogerr · CC BY-SA 4.0Among the places are 2 heritage lighthouses. Its oldest building on the record is Tower, from 1855. For every 10,000 residents Port Elgin has 1.7, ahead of 84% of Canadian towns. Within 5 km of the town lie 2 more that belong to it.
Pictured: Tower, on Port Elgin’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.
In 1873 the railway came to Port Elgin. Port Elgin took its legal form as a village in 1874.
How it began: Wikidata (CC0); dates read from English Wikipedia’s article “Saugeen Shores”, revision 1381162472 (CC BY-SA 4.0), and stated in our own words.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Each dot is a place: point at it for the name, tap it for its page.
The federal directory kept by Parks Canada supplies most of these places; provincial and municipal lists outside Québec aren’t open data, so only the ones Wikidata documents with an article appear.
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. McNab Point Lighthouse is the earliest, from 1877; the latest dates from 1903. Each one opens its own page.
Places the registers give to the town from within 5 km of its edge, nearest first.
| Saugeen River Front Range LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 100 m outside the town |
| Donaldson SiteNational Historic Site · 100 m outside the town |
Half of the homes standing in Port Elgin today were built before 2001. The busiest building years in Port Elgin were from 1961 to 1980, which account for 31% of today’s homes. Homes built from 2001 to 2015 make up 22% of Port Elgin’s, against 15% in the typical town.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Longest lived was William George Bock, 89 years in all (1973). Before 1914, 11 births here made the record. By Wikipedia’s reach, David Milne leads, with 9 articles. The decades after Confederation gave 10 of the 11.
Everyone born in Port Elgin → 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 18,000 to 18,400 residents, by places on the registers.
Just these have more: Schmidtville, Downtown Yonge East and Edmundston. The middle one has 1. 8 of them have none.
All told, Port Elgin has 3 historic places, one with the highest designation; Tower heads the list. Only 3 of the 16 towns nearest its size have more historic places. David Milne (1882), Alda Wilson (1910) and James Angus MacKinnon (1881) are the best known of its historic lives. Pre-1961 homes are a small part of its stock: 17%, against 18% in the typical town. The rest is about typical: its places were designated between 1991 and 2012.
Tower.
Tower — its record dates it to 1855 (Classified Federal Heritage Building).
Before 1961: 17% of its homes; the typical town has 18%.
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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