List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia

This is a list of National Historic Sites of Canada (French: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) in the province of British Columbia. There are 94 National Historic Sites designated in British Columbia, of which 13 are administered by Parks Canada (identified below by the beaver icon ). The first National Historic Sites to be designated in British Columbia were Fort Langley and Yuquot in 1923.

This list uses names designated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, which may differ from other names for these sites.

National Historic Sites

Site	Date(s)	Designated	Location	Description	Image
223 Robert Street	1905 (completed)	1990	Victoria	A good example of the Queen Anne Revival Style in domestic architecture.
Abbotsford Sikh Temple	1912 (completed)	2002	Abbotsford	The oldest surviving Sikh temple in Canada; the Temple played an important role in the first phase of Sikh immigration to Canada, and represents an adaptation of Sikh religious traditions to Canadian architectural norms of the early 20th century
Barkerville	1862 (founded)	1924	Barkerville	The epicentre of the Cariboo Gold Rush, the catalyst for the economic and political development of British Columbia; the town was eventually abandoned and became a ghost town, but restoration commenced in 1958
Bay Street Drill Hall	1915 (completed)	1989	Victoria	A two-storey drill hall with Tudor Revival elements, built during the 1896 to 1918 period when over 100 drill halls and armouries were erected across Canada; its scale reflects the dramatic increase in military participation following Canada’s performance during the Second Boer War
Begbie Hall	1926 (completed)	1989	Victoria	A three-storey purpose-built nurses' residence; commemorates the growing professionalism of nursing in the early 20th century, and the contribution of nurses to health care in Canada
Binning Residence	1941 (completed)	1998	West Vancouver	A small two-bedroom house built for artist B. C. Binning; a very early illustration of the Modern movement in residential architecture in Canada, with a design that had a lasting and important impact on post-war architecture throughout the 1950s and 1960s
Boat Encampment	1811 (established)	1943	Warsaw Mountain, Red Rock Bay	First visited by David Thompson in 1811, the site was an important trans-shipment point for the Hudson's Bay Company Express fur brigades moving to and from the Columbia River across the continent; the site was flooded by hydroelectric development of the river in 1973, and the marker now rests on a point in the Sprague Bay Recreation Site
Britannia Mines Concentrator	1923 (completed)	1987	Britannia Beach	A gravity-fed concentrator used to process copper ore for one of Canada's largest mining operations in the 1920s and 1930s; illustrative of the innovation that made the Britannia Mines an important site in Canadian mining history
Britannia Shipyard	1890 (established)	1991	Richmond	A boatworks and shipyard located along the south arm of the Fraser River part of Steveston's historic "Cannery Row"; noted for its historic association with the construction and repair of salmon fishery boats for Canada's Pacific Coast salmon fishery
Butchart Gardens	1904 (established)	2004	Brentwood Bay	Internationally-known gardens, including remarkable Sunken Garden in a former limestone quarry; unique combination of 3 aspects of Canadian gardening history: early 20th-century estate garden, early twentieth century beautification movement, and the Victorian bedding out system
Chee Kung Tong Building	1877 (completed)	2008	Barkerville	A two-storey board and batten structure originally used by the Chee Kung Tong organization, a benevolent association for recent arrivals; illustrates the community building among immigrant Chinese labourers and merchants in new settlements throughout Canada
Chilkoot Trail	1896-1900 (gold rush)	1987	Bennett	A traditional transportation route through the Coast Mountains, connecting the upper Yukon River in B.C. with the Taiya Inlet in Alaska; famous as the route used by thousands of prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush
Chilliwack City Hall	1912 (completed)	1984	Chilliwack	A small Beaux-Arts style building that served as city hall until 1980; a monument to civic pride at the time of its construction, it is the only pre-1930 town hall in Canada constructed entirely of reinforced concrete
Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point	1903 (established)	1995	Oak Bay	A cemetery on the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the largest concentration of pre-1950 Chinese mortuary features in Canada; a memorial to Chinese-Canadian pioneer immigrants
Christ Church	1861 (completed)	1994	Hope	A wooden Anglican parish church in the Gothic Revival style built at the height of the Gold Rush era; the oldest church in British Columbia on its original foundation
Church of Our Lord	1875 (completed)	1990	Victoria	A Reformed Episcopal church designed by John Teague; it is one of the finest examples of Carpenter Gothic on the west coast of Canada
Church of the Holy Cross	1906 (completed)	1981	Skookumchuck Hot Springs	Renowned example of a Carpenter Gothic mission church, built by In-SHUCK-ch craftsmen; its distinctive profile renders it a landmark in the Skatin First Nation community
Congregation Emanu-El	1863 (completed)	1979	Victoria	A two-storey brick synagogue constructed just 5 years after the arrival of the first Jewish settlers in B.C. in 1858; the oldest surviving synagogue in Canada, and a rare surviving example of a Romanesque Revival style synagogue in this country
Craigdarroch Castle	1890 (completed)	1992	Victoria	A mansion of Scottish Baronial design located on a hill overlooking downtown Victoria; built to assert the wealth and stature of the industrialist Robert Dunsmuir, it is a noted example of an eclectic mansion in the west
Craigflower Manor House	1856 (completed)	1964	View Royal	A timber-frame building built for the Puget Sound Agricultural Company; one of the key buildings of Craigflower Farm, one of Western Canada's first farming communities and symbolic of the region's transition from the fur trade to settlement
Craigflower Schoolhouse	1855 (completed)	1964	View Royal	Built to serve children from Craigflower Farm and nearby settlements, the schoolhouse has been preserved virtually intact and is the oldest surviving school building in Western Canada
Dominion Astrophysical Observatory	1918 (completed)	2001	Saanich	An observatory clad in painted white metal panels and featuring classically-inspired architectural embellishments; it is a world-renowned facility where many discoveries about the nature of the Milky Way were made, and it was one of the world’s main astrophysical research centres until the 1960s
Doukhobor Suspension Bridge	1913 (completed)	1995	Castlegar	A suspension bridge that spans the Kootenay River, built by the Doukhobours; a symbol of Doukhobour culture and one of the few remaining pre-Second World War built resources connected with this group
Emily Carr House	1864 (completed)	1964	Victoria	A two-storey Picturesque-Italianate style house; associated with Emily Carr, who was born in this house
Empress Hotel	1908 (initially completed)	1981	Victoria	A nationally-significant Château-style hotel, built for the Canadian Pacific Railway
Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Roundhouse	1913 (completed)	1992	Victoria	A roundhouse surrounded by railway shops and outbuildings; virtually unchanged since its construction, it is representative of the steam railway era in Canada
Esquimalt Naval Sites	1865 (established)	1995	Esquimalt	Four sites at the heart of CFB Esquimalt: Her Majesty’s Canadian (HMC) Dockyard, the former Royal Navy Hospital, the Veterans’ Cemetery and the Cole Island Magazine; illustrative of years of naval history, from the era of the British Royal Navy to the modern Royal Canadian Navy
Estate of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia	1865 (Vice Regal use established); 1959 (house completed)	2002	Victoria	A 14.6-hectare (36-acre) cultural landscape serving as the residence of the Governors and Lieutenant Governors of the province since 1865
First Crossing of North America	1793 (arrival of Mackenzie)	1924	Bella Coola	Located in Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park, the site of the farthest point west reached by Alexander Mackenzie during the first journey across the continent of North America north of Mexico
Fisgard Lighthouse	1860 (completed)	1958	Colwood	The first permanent lighthouse on the Pacific coast of Canada, built to mark the entrance to Esquimalt Harbour
Former Vancouver Law Courts	1911 (completed)	1980	Vancouver	Landmark courthouse that serves as an enduring symbol of the justice system in British Columbia, now used as the Vancouver Art Gallery; representative of the rapid growth and optimism of Vancouver at the time of its construction
Former Victoria Law Courts	1888 (completed)	1981	Victoria	The first major public building constructed by the provincial government after union with Canada, built to house the Supreme Court of British Columbia; now serves as the home of the Maritime Museum of BC
Fort Alexandria	1821 (established)	1925	Alexandria	Established as a trading post by the North West Company, it was the last post the company would build before its merger with the Hudson’s Bay Company; there are no known above ground remains of the fort
Fort Hope	1848 (established)	1927	Hope	Site of a Hudson's Bay Company post
Fort Kamloops	1812 (first fort established)	1924	Kamloops	Site of North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company posts
Fort Langley	1839 (established)	1923	Fort Langley	The site of a Hudson’s Bay Company post located on the south banks of the Fraser River; the colony of British Columbia was proclaimed at Langley in 1858
Fort McLeod	1805 (established)	1953	McLeod Lake	The site of the first fur-trading post built by the North West Company west of the Rocky Mountains; for two decades after it was built, the fort served as the only liaison between the two sides of the Rockies
Fort Rodd Hill	1898 (established)	1958	Colwood	A coastal defence site containing three artillery batteries; representative of the role of the Esquimalt Harbour fortifications in the defence of the British Empire and Canada
Fort St. James	1806 (established)	1948	Fort St. James	A restored fur trade post on Stuart Lake, founded by Simon Fraser; from 1826-1862 it was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company’s New Caledonia District
Fort St. John	1806 (established)	1958	Fort St. John	Site of fur trade posts established by the North West Company
Fort Steele	1887 (established)	1925	Fort Steele	The first North West Mounted Police post in British Columbia, founded by Superintendent Sam Steele
Fort Victoria	1843 (established)	1924	Victoria	Founded by the Hudson's Bay Company, the post became the centre of trade for British territory west of the Rockies; location of the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island
Gastown Historic District	1867 (established)	2009	Vancouver	Historic commercial district comprising buildings built mostly between 1886 and 1914; an early Western Canadian city core preserved through the emergence of activist heritage movements in Canada in the early 1970s
Gitwangak Battle Hill (Kitwanga Fort)	1867 (established)	1971	Kitwanga	Remnants of a fortified Gitwangak village, located on the Kitwanga River, associated with legends which recall the epic battles of the warrior Nekt
Gulf of Georgia Cannery	1894 (established)	1976	Steveston	A complex of wooden buildings on a wharf that were used for fish processing and canning, located in what was historically the most important fishing village on the West Coast; illustrative of the development of the fish industry
Hatley Park / Former Royal Roads Military College	1913 (completed)	1995	Colwood	A 229-hectare (570-acre) estate, with Hatley Castle, a Tudor Revival-style mansion, at the centre of an Edwardian landscape
Howse Pass	1807 (first European exploration)	1978	Blaeberry River and Banff National Park	An early nineteenth-century transportation route through the Canadian Rockies
Kaslo Municipal Hall	1898 (completed)	1984	Kaslo	A two-storey, wood-frame town hall with hip roof; the oldest remaining town hall on the British Columbia mainland
Kicking Horse Pass	1858 (first European exploration)	1998	Yoho National Park and Banff National Park	A major rail and highway transportation corridor through the Rockies with some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world
Kiix?in Village and Fortress	1000 BCE (circa) (settlement)	1971	Barkley Sound	A Huu-ay-aht village and fortress; it is the only known First Nations village on the British Columbia Coast that still features significant extant traditional architecture
Kitselas Canyon		1972	Kitselas	A canyon settled by Aboriginal peoples for approximately 5000 years; site of two Tsimshian 19th-century villages that controlled trade in the area
Kitwankul		1972	Gitanyow	Gitksan village, named Gitanyow since the 1990s
Kiusta Village		1972	Graham Island	Former Haida village
Kootenae House	1807 (completed)	1934	Invermere	The archaeological site of a former North West Company post; the first trading post in the Columbia Basin, and David Thompson’s base of exploration of the Columbia River
Lions Gate Bridge	1938 (completed)	2005	Vancouver	A landmark transportation link in Greater Vancouver; the longest suspension bridge in the British Empire when it was built
Malahat Building / Old Victoria Custom House	1875 (completed)	1987	Victoria	A three-storey, mansard-roofed, custom house overlooking Victoria's harbour, symbolic of the time when Victoria was the pre-eminent commercial centre on Canada's West Coast
Marpole Midden	1892 (excavation)	1933	Vancouver	One of the largest pre-contact middens in Western Canada, containing the remains of a Coast Salish settlement
McLean Mill	1925 (established)	1989	Port Alberni	A rare, surviving example of an early 20th-century sawmill and logging operation, located on a forested 13-hectare (32-acre) site in the Alberni Valley of Vancouver Island
Metlakatla Pass		1972	Metlakatla	Site on Pike Island at the western end of a narrow, protected ocean channel at the northern entrance to Prince Rupert Harbour; traditional location of the Northern Coast Tsimshian wintering villages
Motor Vessel BCP 45	1927 (constructed)	2005	Campbell River	Among the oldest and best preserved surviving examples of a wooden seiner, a type of fishing vessel intimately associated with the West Coast fishery and depicted on the Canadian five-dollar bill from 1972 to 1986
Myra Canyon Section of the Kettle Valley Railway	1914 (completed)	2002	Central Okanagan	A 9.6-kilometre (6.0 mi) section of railway roadbed comprising a series of high, steel and wooden trestles and tunnels; an outstanding engineering achievement which employed imaginative and ingenious solutions to routing and constructing a railway through mountainous terrain
Nan Sdins		1981	Gwaii Haanas	Also known as Ninstints or SGang Gwaay Llanagaay, the remains of Haida longhouses and totem poles; a UNESCO World Heritage Site
New Gold Harbour Area		1972	Gold Harbour	Site of Haida village
Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre	1942 (internment camp), 1994 (memorial centre)	2007	New Denver	A memorial centre on the shore of Slocan Lake, on the former site of an internment camp built to house forced Japanese Canadian evacuees from the West coast
North Pacific Cannery	1889 (established)	1985	Port Edward	A salmon cannery located between the mountains and the Inverness Passage, comprising a relatively intact assemblage of structures representing over 100 years of the West Coast fishing industry
Orpheum Theatre	1927 (completed)	1979	Vancouver	Known as the "Grand Old Lady of Granville", one of the few movie palaces in Canada to survive to present day in relatively unchanged condition
Pemberton Memorial Operating Room	1896 (completed)	2005	Victoria	An octagonal brick operating room at Royal Jubilee Hospital; a rare surviving example of a surgical facility from the period when hospitals were transitioning from primarily charitable to scientific institutions
Point Atkinson Lighthouse	1912 (completed)	2005	West Vancouver	A 18.3-metre (60 ft) high hexagonal lighthouse located across Burrard Inlet from Vancouver; an early example of its type
Point Ellice House / O'Reilly House	1864 (completed)	1966	Victoria	A one-storey Victorian cottage that served as the home of Peter O'Reilly, a prominent colonial official; the cottage and its gardens represent one of the finest examples of the British Picturesque aesthetic in Canada
Powell River Townsite Historic District	1911 (established)	1995	Powell River	A residential neighbourhood of wood-frame houses built to house the workers of the nearby pulp and paper mill; a very well preserved example of a planned, single-industry town from the first half of the 20th century
Rogers Building	1903 (completed)	1991	Victoria	A small Victorian era commercial building with a Queen Anne Revival shopfront, and intact interior fixtures and decorative features
Rogers Pass	1881 (discovery by CPR)	1971	Glacier National Park	A Canadian Pacific Railway route through Selkirk Mountains, instrumental in the development of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway into a major national transportation route
Rossland Court House	1901 (completed)	1980	Rossland	A landmark buff brick building located on a steep slope with a commanding view over the surrounding area; representative of a distinctive regional form of Canadian courthouse that emerged in British Columbia in the late 19th century
Royal Theatre	1913 (completed)	1987	Victoria	Built by the Victoria Opera House Company, the theatre served as a venue for dramatic, musical and vaudeville performances, and ultimately cinema; restored to live theatre in 1972, it is one of the finest surviving large-scale legitimate theatres in Canada
SS Moyie	1898 (built)	1958	Kaslo	A late 19th-century, steam-propelled paddle steamer, dry docked since 1958 on the shore of Kootenay Lake; at retirement she was the oldest Canadian-built paddle wheeler in service
Saint Paul's Roman Catholic Church	1884 (completed), 1909 (remodelled)	1980	North Vancouver	A twin-spired, Gothic Revival church located in Eslha7an (the Mission Reserve); the oldest surviving mission church in the Vancouver area
Similkameen Spirit Trail		2007	Hedley	A cultural landscape illustrating over 4000 years of Upper Similkameen history, consisting of three sites linked by an aboriginal trail route: the Tulameen Ochre Bluffs, the Chuchuwayha Rock Shelter, and a series of 27 pictograph sites
Skedans		1986	Gwaii Haanas	Former Haida village
St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral	1892 (completed)	1990	Victoria	An imposing twin-towered landmark in Victoria's urban core and an excellent representative example of the Gothic Revival style
St Ann's Academy	1871 (completed)	1989	Victoria	A monumental brick building that served for more than a century as an important educational institute in Western Canada
St. Roch	1928 (constructed)	1962	Vancouver	St. Roch is a restored auxiliary Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner drydocked at the Vancouver Maritime Museum; the first ship to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic by the Northwest Passage
Stanley Park	1888 (established)	1988	Vancouver	404.9-hectare (1,001-acre) public park on a peninsula that formerly served as a First Nations ceremonial site and as a British military reserve; epitome of the large urban park in Canada	80px
Stave Falls Hydro-Electric Installation	1912 (completed)	2003	Mission	A well-preserved example of a typical hydro-electric plant of the early 20th century, the core period of hydro-electric technological development, composed of three dams, a powerhouse, a switchyard and associated equipment
Tanu		1986	New Clew	Former Haida village in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve
Triple Island Lighthouse	1920 (completed)	1974	Triple Island	An octagonal lighthouse on a rocky islet; the prevailing gales and high flood tides made its construction one of the most hazardous tasks in Canadian maritime history
Twin Falls Tea House	1910 (completion of first phase)	1992	Yoho National Park	A log structure serving as a resting place for hikers; symbolic of outdoor recreation in the national parks of Canada and representative of the rustic design tradition
Vancouver's Chinatown	1880 (established)	2011	Vancouver	One of the oldest and largest Chinatowns in the Canada; characterized by a distinctive “recessed balcony” style of architecture
Victoria City Hall	1890 (completed)	1977	Victoria	One of the best surviving examples of Second Empire-style public architecture in western Canada
Victoria's Chinatown	1858 (established)	1995	Victoria	The oldest surviving Chinatown in Canada; retains a cohesive assemblage of heritage structures and is dominated by its historical buildings
Vogue Theatre	1941 (completed)	1993	Vancouver	A theatre designed to accommodate both cinema and live performance; a noted and well-preserved example of the Streamline Moderne style in Canada
Weir's (Taylor's) Beach Earthworks Site		1974	Metchosin	Pre-contact earthworks on Vancouver Island
Whaler's Shrine Site		1983	Yuquot	Original site of the most significant monument associated with Nuu-chah-nulth whaling; the shrine was dismantled by an anthropologist in 1905 and presently resides at the American Museum of Natural History
Xá:ytem / Hatzic Rock		1992	Mission	Habitation site of Stó:lo peoples
Yan Village Indian Site		1972	Masset	Former Haida village
Yuquot		1923	Yuquot	Centre of the social, political and economic world of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations, and the first point of contact between Europeans and an indigenous people of the west coast of Canada; location of signing of the Nootka Conventions

See also

• History of British Columbia
• List of heritage buildings in Vancouver
• List of historic places in British Columbia

External links

• National Historic Sites of Canada - Parks Canada
• Historic places - Administered by Parks Canada