This is a list of National Historic Sites (French: Lieux historiques nationaux) in the province of British Columbia. As of January 2020, there were 100 National Historic Sites designated in British Columbia, 13 of which are administered by Parks Canada (identified below by the beaver icon File:Beaver 1 (PSF)(retouched)(transparent).png).[1][2] The first National Historic Sites to be designated in British Columbia were Fort Langley and Yuquot in 1923.
Numerous National Historic Events also occurred across B.C., 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 province in the same way. The markers do not indicate which designation—a Site, Event, or Person—a subject has been given. The Rideau Canal is a Site, for example, while the Welland Canal is designated an Event. The cairn and plaque to John Macdonell does not refer to a National Historic Person, but is erected because his home, Glengarry House, is a National Historic Site.[3][4] Similarly, the plaque to John Guy officially marks not a Person, but an Event—the Landing of John Guy.[5]
This list uses names designated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, which may differ from other names for these sites.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
A roundhouse surrounded by railway shops and outbuildings; virtually unchanged since its construction, it is representative of the steam railway era in Canada
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Gothic Revival building housed the first union mining local in BC, which fought for fair and safe working conditions, and won an eight-hour workday for BC miners
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
An octagonallighthouse on a rocky islet; the prevailing gales and high flood tides made its construction one of the most hazardous tasks in Canadian maritime history
A log structure serving as a resting place for hikers; symbolic of outdoor recreation in the national parks and representative of the rustic design tradition
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
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