Domaine Carrollcroft · Photo: Cantons-de-l'Est · CC BY-SA 4.0
15historic places on the registers
History of Stanstead · Canada’s heritage registers
In Stanstead, 64% of homes go back before 1961
For Stanstead, that is 3.7 times the typical town’s share, 18%. The registers put 15 historic places inside its boundary, 2 of them of the highest rank. Only a few towns match it per resident: 50 for every 10,000, ahead of 99% of Canadian towns. Go back to 1810 and you reach Édifice Wilder-Pierce, the oldest of them.
All 2 of Stanstead’s highest-designated places, photographed
All of Stanstead’s designated places are pictured. You can start with Domaine Carrollcroft and Haskell Free Library and Opera House. 3 photographers took them.
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.
How it began
From 1871: Stanstead’s first milestones
Wikidata holds February 15, 1995 as the start of the municipality of Stanstead, a date that can just as well be an incorporation. The railway reached Stanstead in 1871.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designationsProvincial and local listings
Tap any dot to open that place’s own page; hovering shows its name.
The 15, by tier
2 Highest designations1 Other federal designations12 Provincial and local listings
Federal designations come from Parks Canada; Québec’s own register adds what the province has classified and what the municipality has cited.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Highest designations
2 places in Stanstead with the highest designation
Start with Haskell Free Library and Opera House and Domaine Carrollcroft. By designation: a National Historic Site 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.
More churches and religious buildings than anything else in Stanstead: 40%
The list spans 5 kinds of place. Next come mills, shops and works: 2. Leading by designation: Haskell Free Library and Opera House and Domaine Carrollcroft.
Churches and religious buildings6
Mills, shops and works2
Public buildings2
Houses2
Other places3
Each place sits in one group, from its name first, then the uses its register lists.
Provincial and local listings
12 local listings in Stanstead
Citations the municipality has made, registered with Québec’s ministry of culture. They date from 1810 (Édifice Wilder-Pierce) to 1904. Each one opens its own page.
For Stanstead, most dated places belong to the years before Confederation
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
British North America 1760–18668
After Confederation 1867–19135
Wars and Depression 1914–19451
Since 1946 1946 on0
8 of the 14 dated places are older than Confederation.
When designated
Stanstead’s list was mostly made in 2009
The places by the year of their designation.
2009 · 12
198020002020
Haskell Free Library and Opera House went on the registers first, in 1985. The busiest year was 2009, with 12. Only 1 has been added since 2011.
Homes by age
New homes are rare in Stanstead: 2.4% from 2016–21, against a usual 4.1%
Stanstead built little from 1981 to 2000: 11% of its homes, where most towns have 23%. Few of Stanstead’s homes date from 2001 to 2015: 5.5%, the norm 15%. Homes built from 1961 to 1980 make up just 17% of Stanstead’s, against 27% in the typical town.
64%
Before 1961
17%
1961–80
11%
1981–2000
5.5%
2001–15
2.4%
2016–21
StansteadTypical 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 Stanstead between 1803 and 1912
9 people on the record were born here before 1914. Best known is Jason Lee, with articles in 7 Wikipedia languages. The longest life was Hiram R. Steele’s: 87 years, to 1929. Most of them, 7 of 9, came into the world in the years before Confederation.
Jason Lee
Chauncey Ward Bangs
Charles McClary
Benjamin H. Steele
Hiram R. Steele
Edward Everett Rose
Benjamin Cate Howard
John Thomas Hackett
Henrietta Banting
1800182518501875190019251950
Jason Lee1803–1845 · Canadian missionary
John Thomas Hackett1884–1956 · Canadian politician
ER
Edward Everett Rose1862–1939 · American playwright
CB
Chauncey Ward Bangs1814–1892 · Canadian politician
CM
Charles McClary1833–1904 · Canadian politician
BH
Benjamin Cate Howard1865–1923 · Canadian merchant and civic leader
HB
Henrietta Banting1912–1976 · Canadian physician
Benjamin H. Steele1837–1873 · American judge
Everyone born in Stanstead → 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
Stanstead has the most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 3,000 to 3,000 residents, by places on the registers.
The 2021 Census dates 64% of Stanstead’s homes before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. There are 15 historic places in all, 2 with the highest designation; Haskell Free Library and Opera House heads them. Among the 16 towns nearest its size, none has more historic places.
8 of the 14 dated places belong to the years before Confederation. Of its people of the past, the best known are Jason Lee (1803), John Thomas Hackett (1884) and Edward Everett Rose (1862). The big year was 2009, when 12 of the 15 were designated.
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.
•
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.
•
The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
•
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.
•
Map points. Federal places get their map points from Wikidata, since Parks Canada’s files carry none; they are as mapped there.
•
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.
Questions about Stanstead’s history
How old are the homes in Stanstead?
64% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town.
Which places in Stanstead have the highest designation?
They are Haskell Free Library and Opera House and Domaine Carrollcroft.
What is the oldest building in Stanstead?
Édifice Wilder-Pierce (Municipal citation (Québec)): the first construction date on its record is 1810.
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.
Top
Top
Fed
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
