Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0In Walkerton, 40% of homes go back before 1961
Most towns have 18%, so Walkerton has 2.3 times as much. 8 places on the heritage registers lie within 50 km of Walkerton, the nearest McNab Point Lighthouse, 41 km away. The closest top-tier heritage is in Huron-Kinloss, 36 km from here. 8 people on record were born in Walkerton before 1914, Leighton McCarthy the earliest.
Old pictures of Walkerton
One picture from before 1950: one old photograph of the town. A tap opens it at full size, with its credit.
1881Public 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.
Around Walkerton, within 50 km, the dated heritage reaches back to 1855
Out to 50 km from Walkerton, outside the town: each place by when its record says building began.
Tower, in Port Elgin, is the oldest (1855). 7 places within 50 km have a date. 2 predate Confederation.
Within 50 km of Walkerton: 8 places on the registers
They stand in 3 towns, Port Elgin, Owen Sound and Huron-Kinloss among them. Tower, 43 km off, is the nearest of 4 top-tier places. Closest of all is McNab Point Lighthouse, in Port Elgin, 41 km off.
The 8 nearest, within 50 km
| McNab Point LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 1877–1878 · 41 km away, in Port Elgin |
| Saugeen River Rear Range LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 1903–1904 · 43 km away, in Port Elgin |
| TowerClassified Federal Heritage Building · 1855–1860 · 43 km away, in Port Elgin |
| Donaldson SiteNational Historic Site · 43 km away, in Port Elgin |
| Saugeen River Front Range LighthouseHeritage Lighthouse · 1903–1904 · 44 km away, in Port Elgin |
| Billy Bishop Boyhood HomeNational Historic Site · 1884–1885 · 49 km away, in Owen Sound |
| Point Clark LighthouseNational Historic Site · 1856–1860 · 50 km away, in Huron-Kinloss |
| Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Owen Sound, OntarioHeritage Railway Station · 1946–1948 · 50 km away, in Owen Sound |
40% of Walkerton’s homes were built before 1961
Only 17% of Walkerton’s homes were built from 1981 to 2000, less than the typical town’s 23%. Homes built from 2001 to 2015 make up just 12% of Walkerton’s, against 15% in the typical town. From 2016 to 2021 Walkerton added 4% of its homes, close to the typical town’s 4.1%.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Born in Walkerton before the First World War: 8 lives
William Bertram is the most written about, in 13 languages. The oldest birth on the record is Leighton McCarthy’s, in 1869. Stanley Wallace Rosevear closes the list, born in 1896. Jeannette Durno lived longest, to 87, dying in 1963.
Everyone born in Walkerton → Born before 1914 (the page’s periods: Confederation to the First World War). Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against the person’s Wikipedia article.
How Walkerton compares with 16 towns its size
Towns of 10,700 to 10,900 residents, by places on the registers.
Only Eastern Passage, Contrecoeur and Alexandria have more. Their median is 0. 13 of them have none.
Walkerton and its neighbours
Walkerton in brief
Counted by age, 40% of Walkerton’s homes predate 1961, against 18% in the typical town. William Bertram (1880), Leighton McCarthy (1869) and Andrew Robert McLennan (1871) lead its people of the past. For its size the list is short: the typical town has 0 historic places.
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.
- People and events. National historic persons carry no place in the open file. They appear on a town’s page when born there (same name, same birth and death years) or when a historic place inside it carries their name and its record names them with their dates; national historic events don’t appear.
- The federal register. The federal list is complete and open: Parks Canada’s directory for the designations, the Canadian Register of Historic Places for what each one is and why it matters.
- 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. Being on these registers doesn’t mean a building can’t change. Federal designation commemorates; protection is provincial or municipal, and those lists aren’t open here.
- The grade. This page gives no grade; history doesn’t count toward a Canadian town’s letter.
Questions about Walkerton’s history
How many historic places does Walkerton have on the registers?
Inside Walkerton, none so far; McNab Point Lighthouse, 41 km away in Port Elgin, is the closest.
When did Walkerton become a municipality?
Wikidata dates the municipality of Walkerton to 1848. That can be its founding, its incorporation or a later merger.
How old are the homes in Walkerton?
40% predate 1961, where 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).