Beth Israël Cemetery · Photo: GBoivinT · CC BY-SA 3.0
184historic places on the registers
History of Québec · Canada’s heritage registers
History in Québec goes back to 1535: Cartier-Brébeuf
Inside Québec the registers count 184 historic places; 147 are top designations. Among the places are 25 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings and 12 municipal citations. Add 2 just outside the town. One further listing on a provincial or municipal register is known only through Wikidata, so it has no page of its own.
165 photos of Québec’s landmarks, and 16 from before 1950
The photos cover 165 of Québec’s designated places; the rest keep their register record. 43 of Québec’s places also have old views on their own pages. Of Québec’s most honoured places, 138 are photographed.
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
1608–1926: Québec in old pictures
Here in time order: 8 old photographs of the town, along with the oldest views of 8 of its historic places. The dots mark each picture’s year; tap one to enlarge it.
16001650170017501800185019001950New FranceBefore ConfederationConfederation 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 old
In Québec, the years before Confederation left the most behind
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
New France before 176042
British North America 1760–186698
After Confederation 1867–191320
Wars and Depression 1914–19458
Since 1946 1946 on3
Of the 171 with a date, 140 predate 1867.
How it began
Québec’s record begins in 1608
Québec is named after Quebec City–Lévis narrows. The record lists Quebec fires of 1845, 1845, among its milestones. In Wikidata’s entry, the municipality of Québec dates from July 3, 1608; that can mean a founding, a charter or a merger.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designationsProvincial and local listings400 m from Maison Antoine-Vanfelson
63 of 147within 400 m of Maison Antoine-Vanfelson, the heart of the town’s history
Hover a dot for its name; tap one to open its page.
The 184, by tier
147 Highest designations25 Other federal designations12 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
Québec’s 147 top designations
By designation: 90 places classified by Québec, 33 National Historic Sites and 24 Classified Federal Heritage Buildings. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Their dates run from 1535, with Cartier-Brébeuf, to 1963. Each one opens its own page.
Designations came from 1988 to 2001. Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Their dates run from 1800, with Former Mess Hall 2 and Shed, to 1959. Each one opens its own page.
Next come forts and military buildings: 47. Compared with the whole country’s registers (6%), theatres, museums and memorials are thin on the ground: 2%. The first by rank are Cartier-Brébeuf and Fort Charlesbourg Royal.
Houses73
Forts and military buildings47
Churches and religious buildings19
Public buildings19
Mills, shops and works5
Theatres, museums and memorials3
Stations, lighthouses and bridges1
Other places17
Each place sits in one group, from its name first, then the uses its register lists.
Provincial and local listings
12 more places Québec or its province protects
Their dates run from 1778, with Maison Lévesque, to 1931. Citations the municipality has made, registered with Québec’s ministry of culture. They were designated between 2000 and 2007. Each one opens its own page.
Québec’s building boom came from 1961 to 1980: 30% of its homes
Before 1961: 21% of Québec’s homes, near the usual 18%. Homes built from 2016 to 2021 make up 6.1% of Québec’s, above the typical 4.1%. More than half of Québec’s housing predates 1981.
21%
Before 1961
30%
1961–80
26%
1981–2000
17%
2001–15
6.1%
2016–21
QuébecTypical town
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
People of the past
People of Québec’s past, 16 of them designated by Canada
Through Habitation de Québec, Samuel de Champlain belongs to the town’s record. Wikidata and Wikipedia agree on 414 births here before 1914. It starts with Germain Morin, born in 1642. James Murray follows, at Maison James-Murray. The timeline shows the 20 best known.
Louis Jolliet
Marie Morin
Gordon Drummond
François-Xavier Garneau
Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau
Napoleon Sarony
Louis-Ovide Brunet
Octave Crémazie
Edward Routh
James Douglas
William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie
Louis-Alexandre Taschereau
Charles Macpherson Dobell
Lucile Watson
Louis St. Laurent
Dina Bélanger
Francis Reginald Scott
Maurice Roy
Marty Barry
Noël de Mille
16001650170017501800185019001950
Louis St. Laurent1882–1973 · National historic person, 1973 · Remembered at Louis S. St-Laurent Ho…
Louis Jolliet1645–1700 · Person of national historic significance (1944) · Canadian explorer
Lucile Watson1879–1962 · Canadian actress
Edward Routh1831–1907 · English–Quebecois mathematician
Napoleon Sarony1821–1896 · American artist
William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie1847–1924 · British shipbuilder
Maurice Roy1905–1985 · Catholic cardinal
Octave Crémazie1827–1879 · Person of national historic significance (1937) · Canadian poet
Everyone born in Québec → Born before 1914, or named by one of the town’s historic places. Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against Wikipedia; national historic persons from Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations, matched by name and life years.
All told, Québec has 184 historic places, 147 with the highest designation; Cartier-Brébeuf heads the list. The census puts 21% of its homes before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. 63 of the places of the highest designation stand within 400 m of Maison Antoine-Vanfelson. Most of its dated places come from the years before Confederation: 98 of 171. Its people of the past include Louis St. Laurent (1882), Louis Jolliet (1645) and Lucile Watson (1879).
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
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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.
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Québec’s register. In Québec the ministry of culture publishes its register openly: provincial classements, declared sites and the municipalities’ citations all appear, with their descriptions.
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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.
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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.
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Map points. Parks Canada publishes no coordinates, so federal places are pinned where Wikidata puts them.
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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.
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The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
Questions about Québec’s history
What is the oldest building in Québec?
By its record, Cartier-Brébeuf, from 1535 (National Historic Site).
Which places in Québec have the highest designation?
These: Cartier-Brébeuf, Fort Charlesbourg Royal, Fortifications of Québec, Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux, Notre-Dame Roman Catholic Cathedral and Ursuline Monastery, and 141 more.
How old are the homes in Québec?
The 2021 Census dates 21% 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.
Beth Israël Cemetery · Photo: GBoivinT · CC BY-SA 3.0
Henry-Stuart House
La Fabrique
Maison Chalifour
Maison des Bédard
Maison George-William-Usborne+160See all photos
c. 1608
c. 1683
1688
c. 1743
c. 1828
c. 1829
c. 1829
c. 1830
c. 1880
c. 1900
c. 1900
c. 1900
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c. 1910
c. 1926
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