Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Caserne Champlain · Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 4.0The typical town has 18%: Shawinigan has 2.4 times the share. The registers put 8 historic places inside its boundary, 3 of them of the highest rank. The list takes in 2 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, 2 heritage railway stations and a municipal citation. Of the dated places, Domaine Beauséjour is the oldest, from 1885.
You can start with Caserne Champlain and Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Présentation. The photos cover every place on Shawinigan’s registers. Open a place’s page for its old views: 2 places in Shawinigan have them.
Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Présentation
Former Shawinigan Aluminum Smelting Complex
Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Shawinigan, Quebec
Andrew Lodge
Canadian National Railways Station, Shawinigan, Quebec+3See all photosPhotos 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.
Here in time order: 4 old photographs of the town, along with the oldest views of 2 of its historic places. Swipe along the strip; each picture opens at full size.
c. 1910
c. 1911
1902–1920
1914
c. 1915
c. 1915Public 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.
Its oldest recorded station, Shawinigan railway station, dates from 1929. As a municipality, Shawinigan carries the date 1854 on Wikidata: a founding, an incorporation or an amalgamation. Shawinigan was known as Shawinigan-Falls until 1958.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Tap any dot to open that place’s own page; hovering shows its name.
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.
Former Shawinigan Aluminum Smelting Complex is the earliest, from 1899; the latest dates from 1924. The group holds 2 National Historic Sites and a place classified by Québec. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Each one opens its own page.
Their designations span 1991 to 1994. The group holds 2 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings and 2 heritage railway stations. Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
The first by rank are Former Shawinigan Aluminum Smelting Complex and Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Présentation. By kind, the list runs to 5 groups.
The groups come from each place’s name and its recorded functions, by what it was built as.
Citations the municipality has made, registered with Québec’s ministry of culture. Each one opens its own page.
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
Homes built from 2001 to 2015 make up just 7.1% of Shawinigan’s, against 15% in the typical town. Shawinigan built little from 1981 to 2000: 18% of its homes, where most towns have 23%. Count back from today and half of Shawinigan’s homes are older than 1981.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Maurice Bellemare lived longest, to 77, dying in 1989. The oldest birth on the record is Russ Blinco’s, in 1906. Fame, by Wikipedia: Russ Blinco first, in 8 languages. At the other end is Maurice Bellemare, from 1912.
Everyone born in Shawinigan → 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 of 49,400 to 53,600 residents, by places on the registers.
Only Rimouski, Quinte West and Victoriaville have more. The middle one has 2. 7 of them have none.
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shawinigan | 51,739 | 8 | 3 | 1885 |
| Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel | 6,613 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Saint-Boniface | 5,405 | 1 | 1 | 1878 |
| Hérouxville | 1,570 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc | 1,598 | 1 | 0 | 1936 |
| Saint-Étienne-des-Grès | 4,675 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Saint-Narcisse | 1,848 | 3 | 2 | 1871 |
Shawinigan’s homes from before 1961 come to 42%, against 18% in the typical town. There are 8 historic places in all, 3 with the highest designation; Former Shawinigan Aluminum Smelting Complex heads them. Its rate of historic places per resident is above 83% of Canadian towns of 2,500 or more. Of the 16 towns closest in size, just 3 have more historic places.
the wars and the Depression account for 5 of the 8 dated places. Russ Blinco (1906), René Hamel (1910) and Maurice Bellemare (1912) lead its people of the past. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: its places were designated between 1991 and 2012.
Before 1961: 42% of its homes; the typical town has 18%.
They are Former Shawinigan Aluminum Smelting Complex, Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Présentation and Caserne Champlain.
Domaine Beauséjour (Cited heritage site (Québec)): the first construction date on its record is 1885.
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).
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