This is a list of National Historic Sites (French: Lieux historiques nationaux) in the province of Nova Scotia. As of April 2021, there were 91 National Historic Sites designated in Nova Scotia, 26 of which are administered by Parks Canada (identified below by the beaver icon ).[1][2]
Numerous National Historic Events also occurred across Nova Scotia, 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.
An austere two-storey stone mansion set within the Stadacona site of CFB Halifax which served as the home of Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s North American station from 1819 until 1904
A Black Nova Scotian community cleared by the municipality in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal; the community was representative of Black settlements in the province and became an enduring symbol of the need for vigilance in defense of Black communities and institutions
A one-and-a-half-storey wood-shingled house originally built for Thomas Beamish Akins, surviving virtually in its original condition; one of the few remaining early 19th-century houses in Halifax and one of the oldest houses in the city
A historic core containing commercial, military, and residential buildings from the 18th to early 20th centuries, located at the centre of the original 17th-century Acadian settlement; the site of several pivotal events during the early years of the colonisation of Canada
A wood-frame building with Greek Revival front facade and a stone jail attached at the rear; one of the best examples in Nova Scotia of mid-19th century Maritime court houses, which were typically simple frame buildings with classicized ornamental details
A two-storey wooden building constructed in the colonial meeting house style, now serving as a museum; the oldest known surviving combined court house and jail
An archaeological site with remains from a major Acadian settlement that played a pivotal role in the 17th- and 18th-century struggle between the British and French for the region; the site also contains the Fort Lawrence NHS
Spiritually significant petroglyph site estimated to be 800-1,000 years old; located in Kejimkujik National Park, which has more than 500 Mi'kmaq petroglyphs itself
A mid-19th-century commercial building with a cast-iron facade; one of the first cast-iron-front structures in Canada and the only building in Halifax known to have a facade composed entirely of cast iron
The site of William Alexander's former settlement, intended to establish the colony of "Nova Scotia"; occupied by Scottish colonists for 3 years, when the territory was restored to France
A simple frame and rectangular Presbyterian church, representative of the 18th-century New England meeting house style; also a component of the Grand-Pré Rural Historic District NHS
The oldest archaeological site in Nova Scotia, and one of the most important Paleo-Indian sites in the province, with artifacts dating from 10,600 to 13,000 years ago
Site of the only residential school in the Maritimes, where the federal government, churches and religious organizations worked to assimilate Native American children
The remains of a fort that played an important role in early European colonization, settlement and government in Acadia and Nova Scotia, and in the struggle between Britain and France for the area
The archaeological remains of a fort erected in 1750 by the British to defend the Isthmus of Chignecto and abandoned in 1755 after the capture of Fort Beauséjour
The Bay of Fundy terminus of the Chignecto Ship Railway. Plans called for a 150 m (490 ft) wide, 12 m (39 ft) deep basin to be excavated for massive equipment to lift ships out of the water and place them on a cradle driven by two railway locomotives, which would transfer ships 27 km (17 mi) over land to the Tidnish Dock across the Isthmus of Chignecto. The railway project failed and construction was halted in 1891. The basin and some of the massive stoneworks remain at the Fort Lawrence site.
The remnants of defensive works constructed to defend Halifax when it was one of the principal naval stations of the British Empire; reflective of significant changes in defence technology in the late 19th century
The largest reconstructed 18th-century French fortified town in North America; the fortress played a key role in the struggle between the French and British empires between 1713 and 1768
A centre of Acadian settlement and culture from 1682 until 1775; the site served as the British headquarters for the 1755–1763 deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia
A rural cultural landscape surrounding the villages of Grand-Pré and Hortonville featuring one of the oldest land occupation and use patterns of European origin in Canada; representative of the adaptation of the first Acadian settlers to the conditions of North America
A complex of 19 buildings, primarily four to five storeys in height, constructed in the years after a large fire in 1859; the rehabilitation of this block in the 1970s was an early success of the heritage preservation movement, and the block now accommodates NSCAD University
A stone fortress built to defend what was one of the British Empire's four principal naval stations during the 18th and 19th centuries; a key element of the unique complex of shore defences in Halifax
A three-storey municipal building with a seven-storey clock tower, prominently located on the Grand Parade; symbolic of the city halls built in the 19th century in medium-sized Canadian cities
Richardsonian Romanesque drill hall designed by Thomas Fuller; representative of the second evolutionary stage in drill hall construction in Canada (1872–1895)
A rare surviving example of a Victorian public garden in Canada; it continues to serve as a public park, with the original landscape design and planting traditions remaining essentially intact
A group of restored stone and wooden warehouses on the waterfront and adaptively reused for offices, shops and restaurants; the most significant pre-Confederation complex of maritime commercial buildings in Canada
Coincident with the entire area of Kejimkujik National Park (except the seaside unit), this is a cultural landscape 404 square kilometres (156 sq mi) in size, in which petroglyph sites, habitation sites, fishing and hunting sites, travel routes and burial grounds attest to Mi’kmaq occupancy of this area for thousands of years
The first university to be established in the Dominions of the British Empire; the original site of the oldest university in what was to become Canada (campus now located in Halifax)
A clapboard wood-frame house with neoclassical detailing; an early example of British classicism in Canada, a style which flourished in the country in the years that followed
A Second Empire style-building located on the Acadia University campus; constructed in 1878 as a home for women attending the university, it is Canada's oldest facility associated with the higher education of women
A small wooden church surrounded by an 18th-century burying ground and a stone wall; the oldest known surviving church in Canada associated with the German Canadian community
A former town hall now serving as a museum and theatre; its restrained classical detailing and wooden construction are rare for town halls of this scale constructed in the 20th century in Canada
A highly visible Second Empire style-building located atop Gallows Hill; a rare surviving academy building, representative of a significant evolution in Nova Scotia's education system in the 19th century when publicly funded county academies were introduced to provide high-quality secondary education
The isolated site where Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic radio telegraph message; comprises the remains of two telegraph towers that once supported Marconi's antennae and the foundation walls of his receiving room and powerhouse
A 350-hectare (860-acre) site containing the foundations of aerial towers and three abandoned buildings; location of the wireless station which, along with a sister station in Ireland, was the first to provide regular public intercontinental radio service commencing in 1908
The remains (a dyked terrace and subsurface archaeological resources) of a pre-expulsionAcadian village in the salt marshes of the Annapolis River; representative of Acadian settlements and their unique form of agriculture along the Dauphin (now Annapolis) River
Wood frame building erected by settlers from New England; one of the oldest surviving buildings in English-speaking Canada, and a good example of a New England–style colonial meeting house
A 0.91-hectare (2.2-acre) early graveyard surrounded by a stone wall and decorative iron fence; a unique concentration of gravestone art, symbolizing the cultural traditions of early British North America
The core area of the town and a well-preserved example of 18th-century colonization and settlement patterns; a World Heritage Site, and one of the earliest and most intact British model plans in Canada
An ocean passenger terminal which witnessed the massive stream of post Second World War immigration to Canada from Europe, including the arrival of war brides; the last intact example of its type, and the embodiment of early 20th-century Canadian immigration
A historic reconstruction of an early 17th-century French fort; symbolic of the legacy of the local Acadian and Mi'kmaq peoples in 1605–1613, and a milestone in the 20th-century Canadian heritage movement
A large martello tower which played a significant role in the development of Halifax as one of the four principal naval stations of the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries
An archaeological site where the outline of the battery’s ditch, glacis and tower mounds are still evident; built by the French as part of the defences of Louisbourg harbour, the battery played a significant role in the 1745 and 1758 sieges of Louisbourg
A steel, purpose-built hydrographic vessel launched in 1913 and now berthed at a Halifax wharf; a pioneering oceanography research ship which took a lead role in charting Hudson Bay
Founded by Captain Charles Daniel as a Jesuit mission and later a naval base, its importance declined with the choice of Louisbourg as the capital in 1719
A wooden former hotel which evolved with the amalgamation of at least two buildings, one dating from the Acadian era; the building stands as a composite of three centuries of materials, construction techniques and architectural styles
A former coalfield with surface and underground mining features that are unique to Nova Scotia; at one time one of Canada's most commercially important coalfields
A Carpenter Gothic church in the heart of Lunenburg; played an important role in the establishment of British authority and of the Church of England in 18th-century Nova Scotia
A large Gothic Revival church associated with individuals and events which played a central role in the emancipation of Roman Catholics in Nova Scotia and in Canada
A small wooden church with a gable roof and central steeple; the first building erected in Canada in the Palladian style, and the first church outside Great Britain to be designated an Anglican cathedral
An archaeological site with resources related to 17th- and 18th-century Mi’kmaq and Acadian communities; the site of Fort Saint-Pierre, a 17th-century fortified trading post, and Port-Toulouse, a French community established in 1713
As a safe port protected by seven coastal gun batteries during the Second World War, Sydney played an important role in the efforts of the RCN and the RCAF to keep open the vital North Atlantic supply routes
A keystone bridge constructed to carry the Chignecto Ship Railway, which was cancelled in 1891. The bridge now carries the Henry Ketchum Trail over the Tidnish River.
Aside from being an excellent example of Second Empire architecture, Truro Old Normal College, built in 1877, is a testament to the movement to standardize and improve teacher training in the second half of the 19th century, and is associated with the development of Nova Scotia's public education system.
A good example of the post offices erected by the federal Department of Public Works in smaller urban centres throughout the country during Thomas Fuller’s term as Dominion Chief Architect
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