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• St. Thomas Canada Southern Railway Station
  The St. Thomas Canada Southern (CASO) Station, financed by American railway promoters, was constructed between 1871 and 1873 to serve as both the passenger station for St. Thomas and CASO's corporate headquarters. During the 1920s, the station was one of the busiest in Canada. The Canada Southern rail route through southwestern Ontario ultimately linked Chicago and New York City, and was instrumental in the economic development and growth of St. Thomas. Designed in the Italianate...

• Alma College
  In response to a petition from a provisional Board of Management appointed in 1876, the Ontario Government granted a charter the following year for the erection of a ladies' college in St. Thomas. In this building, designed in the High Victorian Gothic style by James Balfour of Hamilton, Alma College was opened in October 1881. The establishment of the College resulted largely from the contributions of residents of St. Thomas and Elgin County and the...

• Captain Daniel Rapelje 1774-1828
  Emigrating from New York State to the Long Point Settlement in 1802, Rapelje later received 200 acres of land on the south side of the Talbot Road at Kettle Creek. He settled here with his family in 1810. A veteran of Lundy's Lane and other battles of the War of 1812, he became a captain in the 1st Middlesex Militia. In 1814, he built a log grist-mill and subsequently divided a portion of his land into town lots. The settlement that Rapelje established formed the nucleus of the city of St. Thomas.

• Dr. Charles Duncombe 1791-1867
  This house was built in 1848 by Dr. Elijah Duncombe, brother of Dr. Charles Duncombe. The latter, born in Connecticut, came to Upper Canada in 1819 and settled on this property shortly thereafter. In 1824, with Dr. John Rolph, he opened at St. Thomas the province's first medical school, named "The Talbot Dispensatory" in honour of Col. Thomas Talbot. Charles Duncombe later moved to Burford Township and in 1830, was elected to the legislature as...

• Quaker Settlement at Sparta, The
  Jonathan Doan (1765-1847), a member of the Society of Friends, came to Upper Canada from Pennsylvania about 1789. He settled first in the Niagara peninsula, and then purchased 200 acres of wilderness here in south Yarmouth Township in 1813. A few years later, Doan became a land agent for the Honourable James Baby. He acquired 3,000 acres for settlement and revisited Niagara and Pennsylvania to recruit fellow Quakers. A community known as the Quaker Settlement...

• RCAF Technical Training School
  The only facility of its kind in Ontario during the Second World War, No. 1 Technical Training School, St. Thomas, was established by the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1939 to produce skilled ground crews for active wartime service. It was housed here in this hospital complex and was operated in compliance with Canada's commitment to establish air training facilities in sites removed from the theatre of war. Equipped to handle more than 2,000 students...

• Honourable John Rolph, M.D. 1793-1870, The
  This property once belonged to John Rolph, a prominent physician, lawyer and legislator. Born in England, he emigrated to Upper Canada in 1812. In 1824, with Dr. Charles Duncombe, he established at St. Thomas the province's first medical school, the "Talbot Dispensatory." A reformer, Rolph represented Middlesex in the assembly, 1824-29, and Norfolk, 1836-37. Although not an active participant in the Rebellion of 1837, he was so seriously implicated that he was compelled to flee...

• Honourable Mitchell F. Hepburn 1896-1953, The
  Ontario's eleventh prime minister was born in nearby Yarmouth Township and educated at St. Thomas Collegiate. After serving in World War I, he was elected to the federal parliament in 1926 as member for Elgin West. In 1930 he was named leader of the Ontario Liberal party and resigned his federal seat in 1934 to become prime minister of Ontario. His administration established pensions for the blind and the aged, compulsory pasteurization of skim milk...

• Jumbo
  Near this site on September 15, 1885, one of the best known and most beloved animals met an untimely death when he was struck by a railway locomotive. Jumbo, the 13,000-pound African elephant, had been brought to North America in 1882 from the London Zoo where for seventeen years thousands had been fascinated by the mammoth creature. His purchase for £2,000 by the American, P.T. Barnum, raised a nation-wide outcry in Britain and daily reports...

• St. Thomas' Church 1824
  This church was completed in 1824 on land given by Capt. Daniel Rapelje, the founder of the city of St. Thomas. It is one of the province's finest remaining examples of Early English Gothic Revival architecture. In 1825 a tower, steeple and chancel were added with the aid of a donation from Col. Thomas Talbot. The first incumbent, the Rev. Alexander Mackintosh, a missionary deacon who served from 1824 to 1829, was also the village...

• Talbot Road, The
  This road, named after Col. Thomas Talbot, the founder of the Talbot Settlement, was one of Upper Canada's earliest pioneer highways. Surveyed in 1804 by John Bostwick, it ran from Sayle's Mills (Waterford) to Port Talbot. In 1809 portions of the road line were changed by Mahlon Burwell who ran it through the site of St. Thomas. Two years later he was ordered to extend the road to Amherstburg and to survey branch lines connecting with the settlements to the north. By means of this early colonization road much of the north shore of Lake Erie was settled.