Église Saint-Mathias · Photo: Cantons-de-l'Est · CC BY-SA 4.0
112historic places on the registers
History of Saguenay · Canada’s heritage registers
Saguenay has 112 historic places on the registers, 16 in the top tier
Among the places are 95 municipal citations and a Recognized Federal Heritage Building. Only a few towns match Saguenay per resident: 7.4 for every 10,000, ahead of 97% of Canadian towns. Go back to 1840 and you reach 8782, chemin de la Batture, the oldest of them. One more stands just outside, within 5 km of the town’s edge.
Saguenay’s heritage in 73 photos, and 3 pictures of its past
The set opens with Église Saint-Mathias and Old Chicoutimi Trading Post (boulevard du Saguenay Ouest¤ rue Price Ouest). There are photos here of 75 of Saguenay’s designated places. Old pictures of 3 places in Saguenay 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
Back in time: Saguenay, 1910–1926
Set out by date: the oldest views of 3 of its historic places. Every picture opens full screen, credit and all.
1890190019101920193019401950Confederation 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 it began
The record of Saguenay, from 2002 on
A reorganization in 2002 folded in 6 former municipalities. February 18, 2002 is the date of Saguenay’s municipality in Wikidata, and like many such dates it may record a charter, not the first homes. Saguenay is named after Saguenay River, river in Quebec, Canada.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designationsProvincial and local listings400 m from Church of the Sacred Heart
4 of 16within 400 m of Church of the Sacred Heart, the heart of the town’s history
Tap any dot to open that place’s own page; hovering shows its name.
The 112, by tier
16 Highest designations1 Other federal designations95 Provincial and local listings
Parks Canada’s federal directory and Québec’s Répertoire du patrimoine culturel supply these places: federal designations, the province’s classements and the municipalities’ citations.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there. 2 places, placed by their register’s municipality, have no point and aren’t on the map.
Highest designations
16 places in Saguenay with the highest designation
Their designations span 1969 to 2021. Here that means 12 places classified by Québec and 4 National Historic Sites. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
Recognized Federal Heritage Building · 1958–1959Hangar 66 Edmonton Street
Historic streets
Chemin Saint-Joseph has the most
Streets with three or more places on the registers, by the address each gives.
Chemin Saint-Joseph5 on the registers
Boulevard de la Grande-Baie Nord4 on the registers
Chemin des Chutes4 on the registers
Chemin Saint-Martin4 on the registers
Rue Bossé4 on the registers · 3 top designations
The registers give an address for 92 of the 112 places.
What’s designated
More churches and religious buildings than anything else in Saguenay: 36%
Its places fall into 8 kinds. stations, lighthouses and bridges weigh less here than across Canada: 3%, against 11%. The second-largest group is houses, with 13.
Churches and religious buildings40
Houses13
Public buildings7
Mills, shops and works6
Forts and military buildings3
Stations, lighthouses and bridges3
Theatres, museums and memorials1
Other places39
Kinds read from each place’s name and the functions its register gives; a building keeps the kind it was built as.
Provincial and local listings
95 local listings in Saguenay
They date from 1840 (“8782, chemin de la Batture”) to 1949. Citations the municipality has made, registered with Québec’s ministry of culture. The first was designated in 1987, the latest in 2013. Each one opens its own page.
In Saguenay, the decades after Confederation left the most behind
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
British North America 1760–18668
After Confederation 1867–191322
Wars and Depression 1914–194517
Since 1946 1946 on5
8 of the 52 dated places were built before Confederation.
When designated
Saguenay on the registers since 1969
The places by the year of their designation.
1991 · 322005 · 25
1960198020002020
Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Immaculée-Conception went on the registers first, in 1969. The busiest year was 1991, with 32. The list has grown by 6 since 2011.
Just outside
Just outside Saguenay
Places the registers give to the town from within 5 km of its edge, nearest first.
Just outside Saguenay: 1
Place des OrmesCited heritage site (Québec) · 500 m outside the town
Homes by age
Old houses stand out in Saguenay: 26% predate 1961, where most towns have 18%
Count back from today and half of Saguenay’s homes are older than 1981. Saguenay’s largest group of homes, 34%, went up from 1961 to 1980. Homes built from 2016 to 2021 are 3.6% of Saguenay’s, about the typical 4.1%.
26%
Before 1961
34%
1961–80
24%
1981–2000
12%
2001–15
3.6%
2016–21
SaguenayTypical 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
1807 to 1912: the people Saguenay gave its past
Before 1914, 29 births here made the record. Most of them, 26 of 29, came into the world in the decades after Confederation. Best known is Georges Vézina, with articles in 21 Wikipedia languages. The longest life here was William Tremblay’s, 96 years, ending in 1973. The timeline keeps to the 20 best known.
Peter McLeod
Françoise Simard
Joseph-Dominique Guay
Adélard Riverin
Joseph-Arthur Gaudrault
William-Pierre Grant
William Tremblay
Jo-Calixte Tremblay
Pierre Vézina
Thomas Louis Tremblay
Georges Vézina
Léonard Tremblay
Arthur Larouche
Rosaire Gauthier
Johnny Gagnon
Gérard Légaré
Paul-Edmond Gagnon
Angeline Hango
Arthur Villeneuve
Roch Boivin
1800182518501875190019251950
Georges Vézina1887–1926 · Ice Hockey Goaltender
JG
Johnny Gagnon1905–1984 · Canadian ice hockey player
LT
Léonard Tremblay1896–1968 · Canadian politician
PG
Paul-Edmond Gagnon1909–1981 · Canadian politician
AV
Arthur Villeneuve1910–1990 · Canadian painter
William-Pierre Grant1872–1943 · Canadian politician
Thomas Louis Tremblay1886–1951 · Canadian military personnel
AL
Arthur Larouche1900–1968 · Canadian politician
Everyone born in Saguenay → 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
Saguenay has the most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 141,100 to 175,400 residents, by places on the registers.
In Saguenay, 26% of homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. The lists come to 112 historic places, 16 with the highest designation, including Old Chicoutimi Pulp Mill. Of the 16 towns closest in size, it has the most historic places. The densest spot is around Church of the Sacred Heart: 4 of its places of the highest designation within 400 m. Georges Vézina (1887), Johnny Gagnon (1905) and Léonard Tremblay (1896) are the best known of its historic lives.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Protection. Here the register is also the protection: classement and citation under Québec’s cultural heritage law control changes, while federal recognition does not.
•
The tiers. Three tiers: the top for National Historic Sites, classified federal buildings and Québec’s classements, a second for the other federal designations, a third for provincial and municipal listings.
•
Map points. Parks Canada publishes no coordinates, so federal places are pinned where Wikidata puts them.
•
Québec’s register. The Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec is open data, so the province’s own designations and its municipalities’ citations are here in full.
•
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 grade. History is described, not graded, for every Canadian town.
•
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.
Questions about Saguenay’s history
Which places in Saguenay have the highest designation?
They are Old Chicoutimi Pulp Mill, Arvida, Alert Hangar, Old Chicoutimi Trading Post (Corner of Price Street and Saguenay Boulevard at the Chicoutimi River), Moulin du Père-Honorat and Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Immaculée-Conception, and 10 more.
What is the oldest building in Saguenay?
8782, chemin de la Batture (Municipal citation (Québec)): the first construction date on its record is 1840.
How old are the homes in Saguenay?
26% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian 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.
Église Saint-Mathias · Photo: Cantons-de-l'Est · CC BY-SA 4.0
Old Chicoutimi Trading Post (boulevard du Saguenay Ouest¤ rue Price Ouest)
Site patrimonial du Sacré-Cœur
Presbytère du Sacré-Cœur
Maison Price
Ancien couvent des Sœurs-Antoniennes-de-Marie+68See all photos
1910s
c. 1923
1926
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