Historic Places Research and Designation Program
Alberta Culture and Community Spirit administers the province's Historic Places Research and Designation Program. This program is responsible for:
- identifying, evaluating, and designating Provincial Historic Resources,
- maintaining the Alberta Register of Historic Places, a listing of all sites designated under Alberta's Historical Resources Act, and
- submitting eligible sites for listing on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
The Historical Resources Act empowers the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit to designate any site as a Provincial Historic Resource, if its preservation is in the public interest. Alberta's Historic Places Research and Designation Program administers the process of designating sites as Provincial Historic Resources. Designation serves to recognize the significance of historic places and provide them with the protection necessary to ensure their preservation. It also makes site owners eligible for grants from the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation for conservation work. Historic places eligible for consideration by the Minister for designation include buildings, structures, archaeological sites, palaeontological resources and other works of humans or nature that are of value for their historic, cultural, natural, scientific or aesthetic interest. Currently, there are almost 300 sites protected as Provincial Historic Resources in Alberta.
All sites designated under the provisions of the Historical Resources Act are listed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places. Both provincial and municipal governments are empowered by the Act to designate historic places. Historic places designated by the Government of Alberta include Provincial Historic Areas, Provincial Historic Resources, and Registered Historic Resources. A number of Alberta's municipalities have also designated sites as Municipal Historic Resources. Those sites which have been designated as Provincial Historic Areas or as Provincial, Registered, or Municipal Historic Resources collectively form the Alberta Register of Historic Places. Alberta's Historic Places Research and Designation Program Program is responsible for listing all provincially-designated sites on the Register and works with the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program to shepherd municipalities through the process of nominating Municipal Historic Resources for inclusion on the Register.
Most of the sites that are included on the Alberta Register of Historic Places are eligible for listing on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. The Canadian Register of Historic Places is one of the principal tools of the Historic Places Initiative and represents the official catalogue of recognized historic places of national, provincial and local significance. It is an online, searchable database containing records of historic places from across Canada.
For further information, contact the
Manager of Alberta's Historic Places Research and Designation Program.
Form:
Designation Application Size: 252 KB
