Early developments in
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, designated in 1917, is the oldest National Historic Site. 's tricentennial in 1908 acted as a catalyst for federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites. in
Churchill, Manitoba was one of the first two sites designated in
Western Canada. Emerging
Canadian nationalist sentiment in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to an increased interest in preserving Canada's historic sites. There were galvanizing precedents in other countries. With the support of notables such as
Victor Hugo and
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the
Commission des monuments historique was created in
France in 1837; it published its
first list of designated sites, containing 934 entries, in 1840. In the
United Kingdom, the
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty was created in 1894 to protect that country's historic and natural heritage. While there was no
National Park Service in the
United States until 1916, battlefields of the
Civil War were designated and managed by the
War Department:
Chickamauga and Chattanooga (created 1890),
Antietam (1890),
Shiloh (1894),
Gettysburg (1895),
Vicksburg (1899), and
Chalmette (1907). Domestically,
Lord Dufferin, the
Governor General from 1872 to 1878, initiated some of the earliest, high-profile efforts to preserve Canada's historic sites. He was instrumental in stopping the demolition of the
fortifications of Quebec City, and he was the first public official to call for the creation of a park on the lands next to
Niagara Falls. The 1908 tricentennial of the founding of
Quebec City, and the establishment that same year of the National Battlefields Commission to preserve the
Plains of Abraham, acted as a catalyst for
federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites across Canada. At the same time, the federal government was looking for ways to extend the
National Park system to
Eastern Canada.
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada were designated in 1920, but efforts to restore the fortress did not commence until 1961. On Harkin's recommendation, the government created the Advisory Board for Historic Site Preservation (later called the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada) in 1919 in order to advise the Minister on a new program of National Historic Sites. The first place designated and plaqued under the new program was the "Cliff Site" in
Port Dover, Ontario, where two priests claimed sovereignty over the
Lake Erie region for
Louis XIV of France in 1670. Due to a lack of resources, the HSMBC limited itself to recommending sites for designation, and the focus of the program was on commemoration rather than on preservation.
Benjamin Sulte, a member of the HSMBC, wrote to Harkin in 1919 about the significant ruins at the
Forges du Saint-Maurice, demonstrating his preference for the installation of a plaque over restoration: "All that can be done in our days is to clear away the heap of stones, in order to reach the foundation walls and plant a sign in the centre of the square thus uncovered." In the early years of the program, National Historic Sites were chosen to commemorate battles, important men, the fur trade and political events; the focus was on the "great men and events" credited with establishing the nation. Of the 285 National Historic Sites designated by 1943, 105 represented
military history, 52 represented the fur trade and exploration, and 43 represented famous individuals (almost entirely men). There was also a strong bias in favour of commemorating sites in Ontario over other parts of the country. The then prominence of sites in Ontario related to the
War of 1812 and the
United Empire Loyalists has been attributed to the influence of Cruikshank, resulting in a "veritable palisade of historical markers along the
St. Lawrence", and in Niagara, promoting a loyalist doctrine of imperial unity with Britain, while commemorating resistance to "Americanism". Proposals to designate sites related to the immigration of
Jews,
Blacks and
Ukrainians to Canada were rejected, as were attempts to recognize patriots of the
Rebellions of 1837. Such was the view of Canadian history by the Board in the first half of the 20th century. The HSMBC at the time has been described by historian Yves Yvon Pelletier as a "Victorian gentlemen's club", made up of self-taught historical scholars, whose decisions were made without public consultation and without the benefit of a secretariat to further investigate the recommendations of Board members.
List of members of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada The following have served as members of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada:
Evolution of the program , a location of significant cultural and religious importance to the
Blackfoot people, was designated in 2006. was designated in 2011 in recognition of the efforts of local citizens who had worked for decades to protect the district's historic built environment. As time passed and the system grew, the scope of the program and the nature of the designations evolved. By the 1930s, the focus of the heritage movement in Canada had shifted from commemoration to preservation and development. The change was most marked in Ontario, where the
Niagara Parks Commission was restoring
Fort George and the
Department of Highways was restoring
Fort Henry. It took the
Great Depression to create opportunities for significant heritage preservation projects at the federal level. Although the HSMBC took little interest in these efforts, limiting itself to a commemorative role, the Parks Branch made wide use of government relief funds to hire workers to assist with the restoration of old forts. In 1943, the interim chairman of the HSMBC,
Frederic William Howay, urged his fellow Board members to consider a broader range of designations, and to correct the geographic and thematic imbalance in the designations. In particular, Howay encouraged the HSMBC to pay more attention to economic, social and cultural history, and he urged a moratorium on additional designations related to the War of 1812. In 1951, the
Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences highlighted the imbalances of the National Historic Sites program, urging a more ambitious program with more attention paid to architectural preservation. In 1955, the
Historic Sites and Monuments Act was amended to allow the designation of buildings due to their age or design, resulting in a new focus on the designation of Canada's built heritage. The 1950s also marked the beginning of the "big project" era, which reached its apogee in the 1960s, in which the federal government invested significant funds in the restoration and reconstruction of high-profile National Historic Sites such as the
Halifax Citadel, the
Fortress of Louisbourg, the
fortifications of Quebec City and the historic core of
Dawson City. The 1970s marked the start of a new shift in the nature of the designations. Of the 473 National Historic Sites designated between 1971 and 1993, the formerly dominant category of political-military events represented only 12 percent of the new designations, with the "Battle of..."-type commemorations being overtaken by sites associated with federal politics. The largest group of designations (43 percent) pertained to historic buildings. By the 1990s, three groups were identified as being underrepresented among National Historic Sites:
Aboriginal peoples, women, and
ethnic groups other than the
French and the
English. Efforts were subsequently made to further diversify the designations accordingly. It was at this time that the use of the term "National Historic Park", then still used for the class of larger National Historic Sites operated by Parks Canada and deemed to be of "extraordinary value to Canadian history", was phased out. Changes were not limited to new designations, as the interpretation of many existing National Historic Sites did not remain static and evolved over time. For example, the commemoration of National Historic Sites on the
Prairies related to the
Red River Rebellion and the
North-West Rebellion has gone through at least three phases to date. In the 1920s, plaques erected at these sites trumpeted the expansion of Canada and western civilization across North America. Due to local pressures, changes at the HSMBC and evolving
historiography, texts introduced in the 1950s avoided the previous triumphalist version of events, but also avoided any analysis of the causes or consequences of the events. Commencing in the 1970s, a changing approach to heritage conservation at
Parks Canada, coupled with growing regionalism and a more assertive
Aboriginal rights movement, led to the next generation of interpretative documents, one that included a focus on the societies which Canada's 19th-century expansion had displaced. ==Designations==