Saint-Germain Cathedral · Photo: JF Lepage · CC BY-SA 3.0
20historic places on the registers
History of Rimouski · Canada’s heritage registers
Rimouski’s oldest designated place, Maison Lamontagne, dates from 1744
The registers put 20 historic places inside Rimouski’s boundary, 5 of them of the highest rank. Per resident it outdoes 93% of Canadian towns, with 3.9 for every 10,000 people. The record has 10 municipal citations, 3 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, a heritage railway station and a heritage lighthouse. Outside the boundary but close by, there is one more.
Saint-Germain Cathedral and Joseph-Gauvreau House lead the set. 13 designated places in Rimouski have a photo. Old pictures of 5 places in Rimouski fill their own pages.
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 Rimouski, 1781 to 1935
Oldest first: 4 old photographs of the town and the oldest views of 5 of its historic places. A tap on any picture opens it with its credit.
1800185019001950Before 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 Rimouski, the decades after Confederation left the most behind
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
New France before 17601
British North America 1760–18666
After Confederation 1867–19138
Wars and Depression 1914–19451
Since 1946 1946 on0
Of the 16 with a date, 7 predate 1867.
How it began
Rimouski since 1696: its early dates
Rimouski owes its founding to Sir René Lepage de Ste-Claire, in 1696. That makes it 330 years old. The first railway station on record, Saint-Anaclet Station, opened in 1882.
Wikidata holds April 5, 1869 as the start of the municipality of Rimouski, a date that can just as well be an incorporation. The name Rimouski comes from Rimouski River, river in Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada. The name St. Germain de Rimouski lasted until 1920, when Rimouski took another.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designationsProvincial and local listings
Names show on hover, and a tap takes you to the place’s page.
The 20, by tier
5 Highest designations5 Other federal designations10 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. One place, placed by its register’s municipality, has no point and isn’t on the map.
Highest designations
5 places in Rimouski with the highest designation
The oldest, Maison Lamontagne, dates from 1744; the newest from 1909. By designation: 3 places classified by Québec, a National Historic Site and a Classified Federal Heritage Building. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
The first was designated in 1988, the latest in 2015. By designation: 3 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, a heritage railway station and a heritage lighthouse. Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
Recognized Federal Heritage Building · 1910–1912Armoury65 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Street EastPhoto: Alcide55 de G.Bouchard de Rimouski au Québec · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons file
Two groups top Rimouski’s list: stations, lighthouses and bridges and houses, 7 each
The record covers 5 kinds of building and site. At the head of the list: Pointe-au-Père Lighthouse and Light Tower.
Stations, lighthouses and bridges7
Houses7
Forts and military buildings1
Churches and religious buildings1
Other places4
Each place sits in one group, from its name first, then the uses its register lists.
Provincial and local listings
10 local listings in Rimouski
Their designations span 1992 to 2011. Citations the municipality has made, registered with Québec’s ministry of culture. The oldest, Perron House, dates from 1800; the newest from 1900. Each one opens its own page.
Most of Rimouski’s homes went up from 1961 to 1980: 34%
Before 1961: 20% of Rimouski’s homes, near the usual 18%. New building in Rimouski runs at the usual pace: 4.1% of homes from 2016–21, the typical town 4.1%. Over half of the homes in Rimouski were already standing by 1981.
20%
Before 1961
34%
1961–80
26%
1981–2000
16%
2001–15
4.1%
2016–21
RimouskiTypical 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
Lives begun in Rimouski between 1835 and 1913
Wikidata and Wikipedia agree on 21 births here before 1914. 8 Wikipedias cover Marcelle Gauvreau, the most of anyone here. Longest lived was Ève Bélisle, 97 years in all (2002). 14 of the 21 were born in the decades after Confederation. The 20 best known are on the timeline.
Joseph Parent
Édouard-Onésiphore Martin
Henri-Josué Martin
Alphonse-Fortunat Martin
Jean Auguste Ross
Louis-Félix Pinault
Pierre-Émile D'Anjou
Joseph Gauvreau
Enoch Lepage
Eugène Fiset
Madeleine Huguenin
Octave Fortin
Auguste-Maurice Tessier
Alfred Dubé
Gleason Belzile
Isidore Soucy
Jean-Marie Gauvreau
Alphée Poirier
Ève Bélisle
Marcelle Gauvreau
1800182518501875190019251950
Marcelle Gauvreau1907–1968 · Canadian naturalist and teacher
Eugène Fiset1874–1951 · Canadian physician, military officer and colonial administrator
JR
Jean Auguste Ross1851–1920 · Canadian politician
Madeleine Huguenin1875–1943 · Canadian journalist
JP
Joseph Parent1835–1912 · Canadian politician
ÉM
Édouard-Onésiphore Martin1841–1889 · Canadian politician
Louis-Félix Pinault1852–1906 · Canadian politician
AT
Auguste-Maurice Tessier1879–1932 · Canadian politician
Everyone born in Rimouski → 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
Rimouski has the most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 49,400 to 53,600 residents, by places on the registers.
Housing in Rimouski includes 20% built before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. The count is 20 historic places, 5 with the highest designation, with Pointe-au-Père Lighthouse first. It tops the 16 towns nearest its size for historic places. Of the 16 with a date, 8 come from the decades after Confederation. Its people of the past include Marcelle Gauvreau (1907), Eugène Fiset (1874) and Jean Auguste Ross (1851).
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Québec’s register. Québec’s Répertoire du patrimoine culturel records the province’s classements and declarations and every municipal citation, each with a description and a point.
•
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.
•
Map points. Parks Canada publishes no coordinates, so federal places are pinned where Wikidata puts them.
•
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.
•
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.
•
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.
•
The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
Questions about Rimouski’s history
What is the oldest building in Rimouski?
Maison Lamontagne, a Classified heritage building (Québec), begun in 1744.
Which places in Rimouski have the highest designation?
These: Pointe-au-Père Lighthouse (1034 Lighthouse Road), Light Tower, Maison Lamontagne, Saint-Germain Cathedral and Joseph-Gauvreau House.
How old are the homes in Rimouski?
20% predate 1961, where the typical town has 18%.
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.
1781
c. 1840
1885–1889
1885–1889
1903
1909
c. 1914
1931
c. 1935
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