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• Sydenham Public School
  This building, opened in 1853 as the Kingston County Grammar School, replaced the earlier Midland Grammar School, a log and frame structure located at King and Gore streets. The new building consisted of two classrooms and accommodated over 100 students on each storey. Its elegant symmetrical exterior, dressed stonework and expansive two-acre site testified to the importance of education to the local community. In 1876, the school was severely damaged by fire and subsequently reconstructed...

• Honourable René-Amable Boucher 1735-1812, The
  Boucher was born at Fort Frontenac (Kingston) where his father, an officer with the French colonial regular troops, was stationed. René-Amable also chose a military career and served in the Seven Years War with the French defenders of Canada. During the American Revolution, he was captain of a volunteer company of French Canadian militia and fought with the British under General John Burgoyne. In Quebec, and later in Lower Canada, Boucher sat on the legislative...

• Molly Brant
  Born about 1736, Molly Brant (Degonwadonti) was a member of a prominent Mohawk family. About 1759, she became the wife of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Province of New York and a powerful figure in that colony. Well-educated and a persuasive speaker, Molly Brant wielded great influence among the Iroquois and was responsible for much of Johnson's success in dealing with them. Following the outbreak of the American Revolution she and...

• Fort Henry
  The first Fort Henry was built during the War of 1812 to protect the British dockyards in Navy Bay. The present limestone citadel, constructed between 1832 and 1837, replaced the old fort as part of a larger plan for the defence of the recently completed Rideau Canal. Commissariat stores were built to join the advanced battery with the main fort in 1841-42. Fort Henry was garrisoned by British troops until 1871, when Canadian Gunnery Schools...

• Kingston Observatory, The
  The first optical astronomical observatory in the province, the Kingston Observatory was established in 1855 after a solar eclipse aroused public interest in astronomical studies. Under the auspices of a committee of British military officers and "gentlemen amateurs" a frame observatory was built here. It was transferred to the control of Queen's College in 1861 and within a year a new brick structure had been erected on the site. Staffed by Nathan Fellowes Dupuis, an...

• King's Royal Regiment of New York, The
  The largest Loyalist corps in the Northern Department during the American Revolution, the King's Royal Regiment of New York was raised on June 19, 1776 under the command of Sir John Johnson. Originally composed of one battalion with ten companies, it was authorized to add a second battalion in 1780. The regiment, known as the "Royal Yorkers", participated in the bitter war fought on the colonial frontier. It conducted raids against settlements in New York...

• Loyalist Landing at Cataraqui 1784, The
  Following the end of the American Revolution in 1783 Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec, approved the resettlement of loyalist refugees in what is now southern Ontario. Favourable reports on the Cataracoui area led to its occupation by British forces in the spring of 1783 and to the commencement of surveys the following October. In June 1784, a party of Associated Loyalists from New York State under the command of Captain Michael Grass, part of a...

• Militia Garrison 1837-38
  Commemorating the services of the first permanent Militia Garrison of Kingston, assembled by Lieutenant-Colonel R.H. Bonnycastle to defend this city during the Upper Canadian Rebellion. The mobilization saved Kingston from invasion since the regular forces had been sent to Lower Canada. The troops used this area as their drill ground. Queen’s Marine ArtilleryPerth ArtilleryFrontenac Light Dragoons1st and 2nd Addington Light Dragoons1st Hastings Light Dragoons1st and 2nd Frontenac2nd and 3rd Prince Edward1st and 2nd Addington2nd LennoxBelleville RiflesIndependent CompaniesTyendinaga Mohawks...

• Royal Military College of Canada, The
  Following the withdrawal of British forces from Canada in 1870-71, the federal government recognized the need for an officer training college in Canada. In 1874, during the administration of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, enabling legislation was passed. Located on Point Frederick, the site of the former Royal Naval Dockyard, the new college opened on June 1, 1876, with 18 cadets under Lt.-Col. Edward O. Hewett, R.E. Named the Royal Military College of Canada in 1878...

• Stone Frigate, The
  Once part of a large and active naval dockyard, this substantial stone building was erected as a warehouse for naval stores. Although initially planned in 1816, it was not completed until four years later when the need for storage facilities to hold gear and rigging from British warships dismantled in compliance with the Rush-Bagot Agreement had become acute. After the Rebellion of 1837, the building briefly functioned as a barracks for the naval detachment charged...

• Summerhill 1839
  This house, built in 1839 by Archdeacon George Okill Stuart, was known as "Okill's Folly." When the Province of Canada's first parliament met in the nearby hospital, the members were housed in Summerhill. Leased for government offices in 1842-44, it was later occupied by a school. In 1853, it was purchased by Queens College and served for several years as the university's only building. During most of its history, it has been used as the principal's residence.

• Bedford Mills
  In 1831 Benjamin Tett (1798-1878), later an important merchant at Newboro, anticipating the completion of the Rideau Canal, acquired a sawmill here on Buttermilk Falls. Tett and various partners, including the prominent Chaffey brothers, extensively exploited local forests and through the Canal sent timber, lumber, and cord-wood to American and St. Lawrence River market centres. Active trade and settlement of the district led him to build a store and, in 1848, construct the stone grist-mill...

• Holleford Crater, The
  A meteorite travelling 55,000 kilometres per hour smashed into the earth here eons ago, blasting a hole 244 metres deep and 2.5 kilometres wide. Aerial photographs revealed the crater in 1955, and since then scientists have pieced together much of its geological history. Analyses of drill samples suggest that the meteorite struck in the late Precambrian or early Cambrian period (between 450 and 650 million years ago). At first the depression filled with water, becoming...

• Bishop Alexander Macdonell 1762-1840
  Patriot, colonizer and priest, he was born in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1804 he came to Canada as chaplain of the disbanded Glengarry Fencibles and later became Auxiliary Bishop of Quebec. As the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Kingston, formed in 1826, he lived in this building and in 1831 was appointed to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. In 1837 he founded Regiopolis College in Kingston and is buried in St. Mary's Cathedral in this city.

• Charles Sangster 1822-1893
  Sangster, one of the most significant Canadian poets of the pre-Confederation period, was born at the naval yard, Point Frederick. In 1849, he edited the "Courier" at Amherstburg but the following year returned to Kingston to work for the "British Whig" and subsequently the "Daily News." In this community, he did his best literary work, including two books, "The St. Lawrence and Saguenay and Other Poems" (1856) and "Hesperus and Other Poems and Lyrics" (1860)...

• Frontenac Road, The
  Surveyed in 1852-53 by Thomas Fraser Gibbs, Provincial Land Surveyor, this route was opened as part of a network of "colonization roads" planned by the government to encourage settlement in the southern region of the Precambrian Shield. Under the supervision of Warren Godfrey, construction began in Hinchinbrooke Township and, by 1862, 41 miles of summer road had been built northward through Olden and Clarendon townships to the intersection with the Mississippi Road. Seven years later...

• Government House 1832
  Alwington House, which stood on this site, was completed in 1832 by Charles W. Grant, fifth baron of Longueuil. It was enlarged in 1841 to serve as the vice-regal residence during the period when Kingston was the capital of the united Province of Canada. Three governors general, Lord Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot and Sir Charles Metcalfe, occupied the house. When the capital was removed to Montreal in 1844, Alwington was returned to Baron Longueuil. It...

• Point Frederick
  A strategic location for the defence of the loyalist settlement at Cataraqui (Kingston), this point was reserved in 1788 and named after Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec (1778-86). In 1790-91, a guardhouse and storehouse were built. By 1792, a dockyard was in operation and during the War of 1812 this vital naval base was fortified. On November 10, 1812, the Fort Frederick battery took part in repulsing an American naval squadron under Commodore Isaac...

• Regiopolis College
  Regiopolis College, incorporated March 4, 1837 by an Act of the legislature of Upper Canada, opened in the central portion of this building. Its cornerstone was laid by the school's founder, Bishop Alexander Macdonell, on June 11, 1839. In 1866, the College was given full degree-granting powers, although these were rarely used. Financial difficulties forced its closing in 1869. In 1892, the building was acquired by the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph who opened here...

• Reverend John Stuart 1740-1811, The
  Born in Pennsylvania, Stuart was ordained in 1770 and sent to Fort Hunter, N.Y., as a missionary to the Mohawks. An ardent Loyalist, he came to Canada in 1781 where he was appointed chaplain to the 2nd Battalion King's Royal Regiment of New York. In 1785, having settled at Cataraqui (Kingston), he became the first resident Anglican clergyman in what is now Ontario. Stuart ministered to the white and Indian settlers of this area and...

• Sir Richard Bonnycastle 1791-1847
  As an officer in the Corps of Royal Engineers, Bonnycastle was trained in engineering, mapmaking, geology and painting. He served in Europe and Nova Scotia before coming to Upper Canada in 1826. The military surveys and related scientific work that he produced while posted at Niagara, Kingston and York contributed to the economic development of the province. Bonnycastle was recalled here in 1837 to supervise completion of the new Fort Henry. His masterful defence of...

• Heathfield
  The house which stood near this site was constructed prior to 1841, and purchased in 1865 by Prof. James Williamson of Queen's University. His wife, Margaret, was a sister of Sir John A. Macdonald, who became the first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada. Prof. Williamson leased the building to the Conservative leader, but retained a portion for his own use. Macdonald installed his unmarried sister, Louisa, in the house, and it served as...

• Hillcroft 1853
  Built in 1853 by a mayor of Kingston, Francis Hill, this house, during the 1860s and 1870s, was the residence of Alexander Campbell (1822-1892). A member of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada and delegate to the Quebec Conference which led to Confederation, he was a life-long political associate of the Dominion's first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald. Campbell held several cabinet posts after Confederation, was knighted in 1879 and, from 1887 to 1892, was Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario.

• Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau 1622-1698
  One of the most influential and controversial figures in Canadian history, Frontenac was born at St-Germain-en-Laye, France. As a member of the noblesse d'épée he was able in 1672 to secure the appointment as Governor-General of New France. Devoted largely because of self-interest to promoting the colony's territorial expansion, Frontenac established a series of fortified fur-trading posts extending into the interior of North America, the first of which, Fort Frontenac, was constructed near here in...

• René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle at Cataracoui
  Early in his celebrated career, the explorer La Salle played a principal role in the expansion of the French fur trade into the Lake Ontario region. In 1673 he arranged a meeting between Governor-General Frontenac, who wanted to shift the centre of the fur trade away from Montreal, and representatives of the Iroquois at Cataracoui, the site of present day Kingston. Placed in command of Fort Frontenac, the post the governor ordered built here, La...

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