This is a list of National Historic Sites (French: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) in Kingston, Ontario. There are 22 National Historic Sites designated in Kingston,[1] including the Rideau Canal which extends from Ottawa and traverses to Kingston. The following sites are administered by Parks Canada: Bellevue House, Kingston Fortifications, the Rideau Canal and Shoal Tower (identified below by the beaver icon).[2] Fort Henry and Fort Frontenac were both designated in 1923 and were the first sites designated in Kingston.
Numerous National Historic Events also occurred in Kingston, and are identified at places associated with them, using the same style of federal plaque which marks National Historic Sites. Several National Historic Persons are commemorated throughout the city in the same way. The markers do not indicate which designation—a Site, Event, or Person—a subject has been given.
National Historic Sites located elsewhere in Ontario are listed at National Historic Sites in Ontario.
This list uses names designated by the national Historic Sites and Monuments Board, which may differ from other names for these sites.
| Site | Date(s) | Designated | Location | Description | Image | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ann Baillie Building[3] | 1904 (completed) | 1997 | Kingston 44.2238°N -76.4924°W | One of the first purpose-built nurses’ residences in Canada, the building represents the professionalization of nursing in Canada in the early 20th-century, and now serves as the Museum of Health Care | ||
| 1841 (completed) | 1995 | Kingston 44.2228°N -76.5033°W | ||||
| Cataraqui Cemetery[4] | 1850 (established) | 2011 | Kingston 44.2644°N -76.5411°W | One of the best examples of a medium-sized rural or garden cemetery in Canada, containing a range of remarkable monuments, a Gothic Revival lodge, and the graves of many notable Canadians, including John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister (itself a NHS) | ||
| 1843 (completed) | 1993 | Kingston 44.2318°N -76.489°W | A representative example of a 19th-century Gothic Revival villa | |||
| Fort Frontenac[5] | 1673 (original fort completed) | 1923 | Kingston 44.2333°N -76.4786°W | Originally a French trading post that served as a gateway to the West, the base of Robert de LaSalle’s explorations and a French outpost against the Iroquois and English forces | ||
| bgcolor=#cfecd2 scope=row | Fort Henry * [6] | 1840 (completed) | 1923 | Kingston 44.2303°N -76.4597°W | British fort that served as the principal fortification among a series of military works designed to defend Kingston, its harbour and dockyard and the entrance to the Rideau Canal | |
| Frontenac County Court House[7] | 1858 (completed) | 1980 | Kingston 44.2278°N -76.4898°W | Representative of the large-scale court houses erected in Ontario after 1850, when the Ontario Municipal Act was amended to give increased power to counties to construct court houses on a monumental scale to accommodate various county functions | ||
| Kingston City Hall and Market Square[8] | 1844 (completed) | 1961 | Kingston 44.2299°N -76.4806°W | A prominent example of the Neoclassical style in Canada, with a landmark tholobate and dome; its scale and design are reflective of Kingston's status at the time of construction as capital of the Province of Canada. The Kingston Public Market, founded in 1801, is behind city hall and part of the national historic site and is the oldest public market in Ontario. | ||
| Kingston Customs House[9] | 1859 (completed) | 1971 | Kingston 44.2296°N -76.4823°W | A limestone former customs house; an excellent example of the architectural quality of mid-19th-century public buildings designed in the British classical tradition | ||
| Kingston Dry Dock[10] | 1892 (completed) | 1978 | Kingston 44.2252°N -76.4834°W | An important construction and repair facility for ships on the Great Lakes; noted for the Second World War naval vessels, notably corvettes, built in this dry dock | ||
| bgcolor=#cfecd2 scope=row | Kingston Fortifications[11] | 1840 (completed) | 1989 | Kingston 44.2223°N -76.4904°W | A fortification system consisting of five installations (Fort Henry NHS, Fort Frederick, Murney Tower NHS, Shoal Tower NHS and Cathcart Tower), crucial to the 19th century defense of Kingston and the terminus of the Rideau Canal | |
| Kingston General Hospital[12] | 1833–1924 (completion of historic buildings) | 1995 | Kingston | A complex of limestone buildings, built between 1833 and 1924, set in a campus of more recent hospital buildings; the oldest public hospital in Canada still in operation, with facilities illustrative of health care in Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries | ||
| Kingston Navy Yard[13] | 1788 (established) | 1928 | Kingston 44.2289°N -76.4686°W | The site of a Royal Navy Dockyard from 1788 to 1853 | ||
| Kingston Penitentiary[14] | 1835 (established) | 1990 | Kingston | Canada's oldest reformatory prison, with a layout that served as a model for other federal prisons for more than a century; its massive stone wall and north gate are an imposing local landmark | ||
| bgcolor=#cfecd2 scope=row | Murney Tower * [15] | 1846 (completed) | 1930 | Kingston 44.2223°N -76.4906°W | A martello tower located on Murray Point on the west shore of Kingston Harbour; also a component of the Kingston Fortifications National Historic Site of Canada | |
| Old Kingston Post Office[16] | 1859 (completed) | 1971 | Kingston 44.23°N -76.483°W | A two-storey, limestone building built in the Neoclassical style, illustrative of the popularity of neoclassical elements in the mid-19th century and the eclecticism of early Victorian architecture in Canada | ||
| bgcolor=#cfecd2 scope=row | Point Frederick Buildings * [17] | 1973 | Kingston 44.228°N -76.4695°W | A peninsula upon which a major British naval base was located during the War of 1812; an assemblage of architecturally significant structures used by the Royal Military College of Canada | ||
| bgcolor=#cfecd2 scope=row | Rideau Canal * [18] | 1837 (completed) | 1925 | Ottawa to Kingston | Built for the British government by Lieutenant-Colonel John By as a defensive work in the event of war with the United States, the canal is the best preserved example of a 19th-century slack water canal in North America, with most of its original structures intact | |
| Roselawn[19] | 1841 (completed) | 1969 | Kingston 44.2256°N -76.5102°W | A two-storey neoclassical house, now used as a conference centre by Queen's University; at one time the centre of a large estate, it is representative of the large 19th-century country houses built for affluent Kingstonians just beyond the (then) city outskirts | ||
| bgcolor=#cfecd2 scope=row | Shoal Tower * [20] | 1847 (completed) | 1930 | Kingston 44.2288°N -76.4781°W | A martello tower located on a shoal in Kingston harbour; a component of the Kingston Fortifications NHS, and symbolic of Kingston's military and naval significance in the 19th century | |
| Sir John A. Macdonald Gravesite[21] | 1891 (burial) | 1938 | Kingston 44.2621°N -76.5422°W | The burial place of Sir John A. Macdonald, a Father of Confederation and the first Prime Minister of Canada, in Cataraqui Cemetery NHS | ||
| War of 1812 Shipwrecks[22] | 1814 (built) | 2015 | Kingston 44.231°N -76.4522°W | Wrecks of the British ships Saint Lawrence, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Regent in Deadman Bay and elsewhere | ||