TopClassified heritage building (Québec) · 1881Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac1600 chemin d'OkaPhoto: Dr Wilson · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons file
Calvaire d'Oka · Photo: Vincent Poirier · CC BY-SA 3.05historic places on the registers
History of Oka · Canada’s heritage registers
History in Oka goes back to 1740: Calvaire d'Oka
Inside Oka the registers count 5 historic places; 4 are top designations. Only a few towns match it per resident: 12 for every 10,000, ahead of 98% of Canadian towns. Counted by designation, there are a municipal citation.
Historic places
5
12 per 10,000 residents
Highest designations
4
National Historic Sites, classified federal buildings and Québec’s classements
Provincial and local listings
1
municipal citations on Québec’s register
Oldest building
1740
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
30%
typical town: 18%
In pictures
2 of Oka’s 4 highest-designated places, photographed
The photos cover 3 of Oka’s designated places; the rest keep their register record. Photos show 2 of Oka’s places with the highest designations. You can start with Calvaire d'Oka and Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac.
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
Oka before 1950
From before 1950 comes the oldest view of one of its historic places. Tap it to see it full screen.
c. 1885Public 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 Oka’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsProvincial and local listings400 m from Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac
3 of 4within 400 m of Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac, the heart of the town’s history
Hover a dot for its name; tap one to open its page.
The 5, by tier
4 Highest designations1 Provincial and local listings
The federal directory and the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec are both open, so every federal, provincial and municipal designation here has its point.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Highest designations
4 places in Oka with the highest designation
Designations came from 1982 to 2020. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Their dates run from 1740, with Calvaire d'Oka, to 1916. Each one opens its own page.
TopClassified heritage site (Québec) · 1740–1742Calvaire d'OkaPhoto: Vincent Poirier · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons file
Classified heritage building (Québec) · 1900Rotonde de l'Abbaye-Notre-Dame-du-Lac-à-Oka1600 chemin d'Oka
Classified heritage site (Québec) · 1916–1918Site patrimonial de l'Abbaye-Notre-Dame-du-Lac-à-Oka1600 chemin d'Oka
What’s designated
Churches and religious buildings and public buildings share the lead in Oka, 2 each
Two of the highest-ranked are Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac and Rotonde de l'Abbaye-Notre-Dame-du-Lac-à-Oka.
Churches and religious buildings2
Public buildings2
Other places1
Each place sits in one group, from its name first, then the uses its register lists.
Provincial and local listings
One more place Oka or its province protects
Citations the municipality has made, registered with Québec’s ministry of culture. Each one opens its own page.
LocalCited heritage site (Québec)Site du patrimoine d'OkaPhoto: Hans-Jürgen Hübner · CC BY 3.0 · Commons file
Homes by age
Old houses stand out in Oka: 30% predate 1961, where most towns have 18%
Oka has an unusual share of homes built from 2001 to 2015: 21%, where most towns have 15%. Homes built from 2016 to 2021 are 4.6% of Oka’s, about the typical 4.1%. More than half of Oka’s housing predates 1981.
30%
Before 1961
24%
1961–80
20%
1981–2000
21%
2001–15
4.6%
2016–21
OkaTypical 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
Oka’s 3 natives of the years before 1914
Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire comes first, born in 1808. The last born is Charles Angus Cooke, in 1870. Charles Angus Cooke reached 88, the longest life here, ending in 1958. Fame, by Wikipedia: Ovide Charlebois first, in 6 languages.
Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire
Ovide Charlebois
Charles Angus Cooke
1800182518501875190019251950
Ovide Charlebois1862–1933 · Canadian Catholic prelate
FL
Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire1808–1879 · Canadian politician
CC
Charles Angus Cooke1870–1958 · Iroquois civil servant and ethnologist
Everyone born in Oka → 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
Oka has the 2nd most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 4,300 to 4,300 residents, by places on the registers.
Oka5
Ahead of it: Prescott. Their median is 0. 9 of them have nothing on the registers.
Neighbours
Oka and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oka | 4,312 | 5 | 4 | 1740 |
| Kanesatake | 1,872 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Saint-Joseph-du-Lac | 7,391 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Hudson | 5,533 | 4 | 1 | 1904 |
| Pointe-Calumet | 6,427 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac | 1,340 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Vaudreuil-Dorion | 46,413 | 10 | 7 | 1784 |
In brief
Oka in brief
Oka’s homes from before 1961 come to 30%, against 18% in the typical town. Together that makes 5 historic places, 4 with the highest designation. Around Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac, 3 of the places of the highest designation lie within 400 m.
Just one town of its size, out of 16, has more historic places. The town’s people of the past are Ovide Charlebois (1862), Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire (1808) and Charles Angus Cooke (1870). For the rest, the list grew between 1982 and 2020.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- People and events. Parks Canada’s open file gives its national historic persons no place. A town’s page names one only when the person was born there (matched by name and both life years) or one of its own historic places carries the name and its record speaks of them; national historic events stay off.
- Protection. Québec’s classements and citations carry legal protection: work on a classified building needs the minister’s authorization, on a cited one the municipality’s. Federal designations commemorate.
- The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
- The federal register. Every federal designation is in Parks Canada’s directory, and the Canadian Register of Historic Places gives most of them a bilingual statement of significance.
- Québec’s register. Québec is the one province whose register is open: classements, declarations and municipal citations, described by the ministry in 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.
Questions about Oka’s history
What is the oldest building in Oka?
By its record, Calvaire d'Oka, from 1740 (Classified heritage site (Québec)).
Which places in Oka have the highest designation?
They are Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac, Rotonde de l'Abbaye-Notre-Dame-du-Lac-à-Oka, Calvaire d'Oka and Site patrimonial de l'Abbaye-Notre-Dame-du-Lac-à-Oka.
How old are the homes in Oka?
The 2021 Census dates 30% of its homes before 1961 (18% in the typical town).
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Parks Canada). Québec register data: Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, CC BY 4.0.
Sources: Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Canadian Register of Historic Places (federal extract) · Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec (MCC, Données Québec) · 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).