Tag Archives: History

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

October 15, 2026

The Historic Landmarks Association of Canada, a precursor and Canadian historic sites advocate during the war, to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, was created in May 1907 by the Royal Society of Canada. It published reports between 1915 and 1922 when it dissolved and became the Canadian Historical Association. The 1922 President felt that its existence had made the space to make the new government advisory board possible. The mandate of the Canadian Historical Association is to be “a bilingual not-for-profit and charitable association devoted to fostering the scholarly study and communication of history in Canada.”  

After the First World War, the Commissioner of Dominion Parks, James Bernard Harkin, was able to refocus his efforts on the national heritage movement that had been paused due to the war effort. Harkin wrote a memorandum to the Minister on March 1, 1919, where he proposed “that an honorary board or committee, following the line of the Wild Life Board, be appointed, composed of men from all parts of the country who are authorities on Canadian history, to advise the Department in the matter of preserving those sites which pre-eminently possess Dominion-wide interest.” The Minister of the Interior, Hon. Mr. Arthur Meighen, who was responsible for the Dominion Parks Branch within it, agreed and through an Order-in-Council, an advisory board to the government for historic site preservation was established. The appointed founding members, considered to be authorities in their fields, were Benjamin Sulte, of Ottawa; Brigadier-General Ernest Alexander Cruikshank of Ottawa; Dr. James H. Coyne, of St. Thomas, Ontario; Mr. W.C. Milner of Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Archdeacon W.O. Raymond of St. John, New Brunswick. From the Department of the Interior, the public servants Mr. J.B. Harkin, and F.H.H. Williamson, who acted as secretary, were also attached to the board.  

The first meeting of the advisory board was held in an Ottawa government office on October 28, 1919, where the members elected Brig. Gen. Cruikshank as the Chairman, and choose the boards official name Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC). In his 1921 Report of the Commissioner of Dominion Parks (for fiscal year ending March 31, 1920), Harkin wrote that a board had been formed, that these were unpaid appointments, and members had agreed to attend up to two meetings a year in Ottawa, and if the need arose members resident in Ottawa would meet to discuss issues. The new board had decided that their first order of business was to compile a list of Canadian historic sites to be considered. Additionally, historical societies, associations, and libraries were contacted to gain their cooperation, and the board had received positive responses. Future plans included the creation of a design for tablet (plaque) for use on designated sites, as well as a standard design for a cairn for those places where there is nothing available to attach the plaque. In the 1919–1920-year Dominion-wide commemoration was to be done with a budget of $5,000. 

In the advisory boards second year the budget was increased to $10,000. Harkin reported in the 1922 Report of the Commissioner of Dominion Parks (for fiscal year ending March 31, 1921), that the board had met twice and had 5 local (Ottawa-based) meetings. 514 site names had been compiled, with 46 of them selected to receive the attention of the board in the way of plaques or preservation or both. Four forts were selected for the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; ten sites, either battle sites, forts and one forge were chosen for Quebec; twenty-one sites were chosen for Ontario (which had been broken up into Niagara Front, Western Ontario, and Eastern Ontario) comprising also of forts, and battle sites, a lock, four religious sites, and an indigenous earthworks; and nine sites for all of western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon territory, and the Northwest Territories), comprising of forts and battle sites. This list of compiled sites to preserve and/or commemorate, is heavily weighted in Ontario, followed by Quebec, with a military history-based theme across Canada. Correspondence from thirty-four historical societies and associations had indicated that they were interested in supporting the preservation and commemoration of Dominion historic landmarks with HSMBC.  

There is some confusion between who was the artist that designed the plaque for HSMBC. Between the 1922 Annual Report, where Harkin wrote that the Canadian artist, Major Lionel Fosbery, RCA, had designed the commemorative plaque, differs from his 1923 Annual Report, where he attributed the design to the other brother, Major Ernest Fosbery, RCA.  Both brothers were artists working in Ottawa at that time, and from newspaper accounts often assisted each other in commemorative plaque works. Ernest was a painter, and most known for detailed etchings. Lionel was a sculptor, with busts of Sir Robert Borden and Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the House of Commons. C.J. Taylor, Negotiating the Past: The Making of Canada’s National Historic Parks and Sites, writes that it was Major Ernest Fosbery who was commissioned in January 1920 after a meeting with the executive committee Cruikshank, Sulte, Harkin, and Williamson, and due to the nature of the Fosbery brothers having similar work in Ottawa may account for the disparity in the Annual Reports between the two years.  

These commemorative plaques were to be cast in bronze and attached to the cairns that were designed in house by the Dominion Parks Branch engineers. The cairns were fairly inexpensive to make as they were to be made out of rough field stones. Cost was a factor, as proving the economic value of commemoration and preservation of historical sites is difficult.  A summary of the situation outlined by C.J. Taylor in his book, commemoration with plaques, and sometimes cairns, is cheaper, than the boards second mandate of preservation. And as Taylor also pointed out, there was a wide difference in what each province wanted between commemoration and or preservation. The Maritime’s wanted their forts preserved, which would require stabilization or restoration, and additional visitor services. Quebec and Ontario mostly wanted plaques installed, and between the costs, and the Ottawa representation on the board, Ottawa and Quebec interests were more supported as shown by the 1922 Report.    

Policy to support HSMBC with budgetary support and formal authority arrived just over 30 years after its creation in 1953 as the Historic Sites and Monuments Board Act. It has been amended several times to increase its heritage jurisdiction to include recommending national designation for buildings, the designation of heritage railway stations, Canadian Prime Minister grave site commemoration, and recently in 2009 it was amended to include heritage lighthouses.  

The thematic view of the HSMBC has also widened from its post-war, military history commemoration of the 1920s. Its current focus is on places, persons, and events that had an effect on Canada as whole in respect to its political, economic, and social history with prioritization under reported designations of indigenous history, environmental history, and others. Preventing uneven representation, HSMBC now has a member appointed from each province and territory, with four Ex-officio Members making it a seventeen-member board.  

Both hung in the same foyer at the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, (Above) an original style of plaque, and (Below) a more modern style of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board Plaques. [and if anyone is listening who creates plaques, please for the love of Bert and Ernie, date when the plaque was installed]

Sources 

  • Canadian Historical Association, Historic Sites and Monuments Board, [President] M.H. Long, 1954 
  • Canadian Historical Association, About Us, [n.d.], accessed October 15, 2026 
  • Negotiating the Past: The Making of Canada’s National Historic Parks and Sites, C.J. Taylor, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1990 
  • The Place of History: commemorating Canada’s Past: Proceedings on the National Symposium held on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada, 1997 [symposium held November 26-28,1994] 
  • The Ottawa Citizen, Noted Canadian Sculptor Lionel G. Fosbery Dead at 77, February 11, 1956 

Solving my own Missing Building Mystery

Separate from my ongoing plaque hunts, since moving into the city from the suburbs, I have been looking for a particular funeral home because of its proximity to a nearby church. In retrospect, it was the event that really made me focus and wonder about my surroundings. In 1991 my grandfather died. I was 16 and this was my first introduction to death. My family lived on the outskirts of Ottawa before my city was incorporated as part of the megacity in 1999. I was overwhelmed by the capital, its many close streets and cars compared to where I grew up. A particular memory of that time I remember getting some air on the veranda of the funeral home with the sun setting in my eyes. But what really sealed the building in my memory was that we didn’t need a hearse to take my grandfather to the church, the pall-bearers carried him from there to the church across the street. I wondered if this was a standard thing (no it isn’t). There can’t be very many funeral homes where you can do that?

Retrospectively I was pretty sure this all happened in Centretown and I have been wandering around looking for this funeral home for my own genealogy purposes. I was sure that the building would be on the east side of the street to account for the setting sun in my eyes. Last Wednesday I realized I had walked all of the areas that I had thought it could be. This was a troubling thought, how could I have missed it when I am specifically looking for hidden and forgotten things? 

With my brand new newspapers.com subscription, I finally found his obituary which contained both the funeral home address, as well as the corresponding church. The church was the one I thought it was but I was somewhat confounded as to how I missed the funeral home as I had just been on that street. A repeating theme resonating with my obsession to document the location of plaques, you cannot find a building that isn’t there anymore. A google search on the address and I discover that it is now condo towers with a nice explanatory article by the ottawamagazine.com posted in 2011. 

McEvoy Shields Funeral Home, 245 Kent Street. Photo credit Ottawamagazine.com

I am relieved that I have found it now. One more mystery put to bed. For my genealogy research, I now know exactly which church I will be directing my next course of correspondence. 

Reference:

https://ottawamagazine.com/homes/from-the-print-edition-from-georgian-style-funeral-parlour-to-art-deco-condo-towers/ Then and Now: From Georgian-style funeral parlour to art deco condo towers. Posted October 4, 2011, accessed November 18, 2020.

Walking between Bronson Ave. and Kent St.

I took today off from work to go plaque-hunting. It was -7C in Ottawa this morning and about -3C when I started out. Plaques were not as bountiful as I had hoped, but when I did find them they were plenty. Bronson Centre, previously Immaculata High School, had four cornerstones, one plaque and an art piece. On the same building were two different cornerstones with differing dates. I bet there is a story there. And I am going to find out what it is.

I have to say this method of research is a healthy one. Today I did over 13000 steps. Most days during our pandemic reality I haven’t managed more than 2000 without extreme effort and/or planning. Clear and bright skies coupled with a rather walkable temperature made for an uncomplicated and enjoyable fall afternoon out.

Hollywood Parade

A friend of mine was viewing my new website and blog and mentioned that they had never heard of Hollywood Parade which was one of the photos I had taken and featured on the main page. I said that was exactly why I was determined to write about these lost bits of history. They are everywhere and often overlooked. 

The plaque for “Hollywood Parade” and its 1892 cornerstone is at 113 James Street (and Lyon) in Ottawa. It is a Designated Heritage property. I will follow up with another post as to what that means and entails. But at the moment it means it is a nice old place in the center of Ottawa. 

I had seen this almost 130 year-old property earlier on walks. The red brick detail on the rowhouse is eyecatching. I am not well versed in architecture but it is described as the “Romanesque Revival” style.  It was featured in the 1998 Citizen Homes section and I feel that this sort of detail and craftsmanship isn’t incorporated into our modern homes. James A. Corry was the architect, builder and one of the original inhabitants of the six-unit row house. The rather grandiose name and its history remain a secret although it has been suggested that it was selected in order to give it higher aspirations than what was considered common row housing to the upper classes. Bytowne museum has suggested that it is meant as holly wood, to indicate nature, as present-day developments such as Deer Fields, try to imply.

In 1892 James Corry ran for the Wellington Ward alderman position, where he describes himself as being a resident of the ward for a number of years “with considerable interest therein.”  He is found arguing in the paper for wooden sidewalks (and denied) on neighbouring Florence street. There is an Ottawa Journal article in 1903 referring to ex-alderman James A. Corry, as the owner of land purchased on Rideau street to build office buildings, as well as other Ottawa projects. He died at the age of 65 on December 17, 1923.

Feels like the first day with a new pair of feet.

As I crash around this new webpage publishing medium I feel incredibly clumsy and deeply thankful that someone automated the hardwork. This is the space I’ll be posting about my plaque-hunting adventures with more indepth context on specific items of historical significance that will be under the soon-to-be created “Short History Sunday” series to be uploaded in the new year. (2021)

I have always been interested in the small histories, ones that as a single instance rarely fill a whole book but those which have had an impact on individuals and their community. I have stopped the car and dragged my hapless kidlets off to look at a plaque on many a car trip. And sometimes, over time, those plaques have disappeared. At first I thought I just mistook the location but have discovered that they sometimes disappear because their original meaning has been forgotten, the place destroyed or the plaque fallen down forgotten and lost. The neighborhood that inspired me to write this book was in Hintonburg. In 2010 I saw a plaque that had fallen down and was propped up in a window. After initial inquiries, I failed to continue to think about the lost little plaque further until the Magee house partially collapsed in 2018. As it turns out there isn’t a large database of the location of every plaque, as each may be given by a different organization or level of government, and ongoing maintenance isn’t followed up upon.

I would like this book to be a useful walking guide to historians now and in the future, and indication of where items of note were located and at that same time creating a time capule for what was commemorated indicates what was considered important to us as a community.

I hope you enjoy finding out our local secret places. This is my map of Ward 14 in Ottawa that encompasses Little Italy, Chinatown, Sparks street, and Parliament Hill: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit?mid=1Yt6tJaDfBwwCG9kDueModU9w-08pfOrz&usp=sharing

I am adding as I collect them. At the moment I have collected more than I have sat down to do the data entry for, but that is what the cold winter months are for aren’t they?