Perth, Ontario: A Case in Heritage Planning
Perth is a town of approximately 6,000 permanent residents situated about an hour’s drive southwest of Ottawa on the Tay River, a tributary of the Rideau Canal and Waterway. Several times voted the “Prettiest town in Ontario”, its summer daytime population booms as cottagers and tourists from throughout the eastern part of the province flock to the town to enjoy a stroll along the Tay River, to browse its unique shops, or to have a bite to eat in one of its dozens of restaurants, pubs, and cafés. Some must come to Perth just to escape the flashy, oversized, and overadvertised world of their everyday; to be surrounded by Perth’s wealth of well-preserved heritage structures, many of which date to soon after the town’s inception.
Perth, named for its sister city in Scotland from where many of its initial settlers arrived, was founded in 1816 as one of three military settlements in the region established after the War of 1812. Its mathematical square-grid layout with a central parade route (now Gore Street) reflects the influence that British military planners had on the town’s development (similar layouts can be found throughout Canada with varying degrees of success — Halifax, Nova Scotia and Kingston, Ontario were both established on military rectilinear grids).
In the 1820s, the town became the centre for administrative, judicial, and social activities in the Bathurst district, and this attracted a number of settlers to the area. Perth still has a a number of well-preserved Georgian buildings from its early settlement period, including several magnificent residences, not least of which being McMartin House, built in 1830 in the American Federalist style by a wealthy expatriate.
Perth was the site of the supposed last duel in Canada, fought in 1833 between one Wilson and one Lyon over a dispute pertaining to one Miss Hughes, a schoolteacher. Wilson won the duel and eventually went on to marry Miss Hughes. The town was also home of the Marks Brothers Dramatic Company, dubbed “The Canadian Kings of Repertoire”, who performed all over Canada and the United States from the 1870s to the 1920s. Perhaps most infamously, Perth is the home of the “Mammoth Cheese”, a 22,000-pound block of cheddar that was produced for the Chicago Fair of 1893. Legend has it that the cheese was so massive that upon arrival in Chicago, it broke through its exhibition room’s floor and needed to be moved to a building with a reinforced concrete base. Today, a replica of the cheese proudly watches over the end of Herriott Street on the town’s outskirts, while a morsel of the original cheese is on permanent display at the Perth Museum. More recently, Perth has earned fame as being the home of Big Ben, the best show jumping horse in the world during the 1980s.
Perth evidently has a history and a stature that most towns of its size would envy. Perhaps its most striking quality, however, is its vibrant, well-preserved central core. Its main streets, Gore and Foster, are lined with thriving independent businesses, unique restaurants and pubs, and local retail mainstays that seem to have evolved for decades alongside the town (see the photo of Shaw’s Department Store — one of the few remaining operational small-town department stores in Canada). The town’s old industrial buildings have either maintained their original uses or have been redeveloped to contain newer and more attractive ones. For instance, a large former shoe factory on the edge of town has been recently renovated by, among others, a warehouse-style gym, a local dramatic society, and an independent coffee roaster and café. The city has well-maintained waterfront parks, a farmers’ market, and many local churches. Most noticeable is the conspicuous preservation of the town’s history: the city has maintained its heritage buildings, and historical plaques, information signs, and museums conspicuously greet visitors. How has Perth managed to maintain such a thriving face while surrounding towns of similar size continue to decline?
Perth is a unique case in heritage revitalization in that was the first community to benefit from the Heritage Canada Foundation’s Main Street program, created in 1979 with the explicit purpose of revitalizing the core areas of small and medium-sized towns in the face of contemporary urban demons such as shopping malls, highways, and industrial outsourcing (all of which have afflicted Perth in the past decades). The program lasted until 1994, when a lack of federal funding forced its discontinuation. However, the town has managed to maintain the good principles that were put to use during its run under federal supervision. The town’s strong Business Improvement Association mandates that retail establishments must adhere to heritage signage principles, and oversees new construction in the town core to ensure that it meets the aesthetic standards of the historic vernacular (the best example of this regulation can be seen in a new Tim Horton’s drive-through chain to the south of downtown which resembles an original Eastern Ontario cottage). In 2004, for its efforts in emphasizing its dynamic past, Perth was the recipient of the Heritage Canada Foundation’s Prince of Wales Prize for commitment to municipal heritage.
Perth is also home to Algonquin College’s Heritage Institute, the only program of its kind in Canada. The program teaches newcomers skills needed in building restoration and for the political and administrative management of heritage properties.
Perth does not, however, exist in a time vacuum — the strip adjoining Highway 7 (the main thoroughfare through rural Eastern Ontario) is dominated by gaudy car dealerships, box stores, strip malls, and signs for new suburban-style housing developments. The town has also become a very popular retirement destination for aging Ottawans, and new villa-style retirement centres are popping up on the town’s edges. However, Perth has managed to maintain a resilient, self-supporting, and authentic downtown core despite these pressures from outside. It is larglely because of its resilient heritage planning that the city continues to draw visitors by the bundle and why its prospects are rosy while much of small-town Eastern Ontario declines.
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Patrick Donovan says:
Sounds like an interesting place. Thanks for the description. I’ll have to check it out sometime.
I’d like to challenge you on the two following points, however:
1)
1833 is not the date of the last duel fought in Canada. There was a duel fought between parliamentarians Dominick Daly and Thomas Cushing Aylwin in Quebec City in 1845. See:
http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38506&query=dominick%20AND%20daly
2)
There are many heritage preservation programs in Canada, including a fine one at the University of Montreal.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Hugh Chatfield says:
1) I believe the correct distinction is that the last FATAL duel in Canada was fought in Perth. Robert Lyon, one of the protagonists didn’t survive and is buried in Perth in the “Old Burial Grounds”. The pistols used in the duel are still on display in the Perth Museum on Gore St.
2) For more stories of Perth check my site
http://all-about-perth.com :
the story of Perth… Past, Present and Future
For a more detailed look at merchants in town - see http://shop-heritage-perth.com. Up to Jan of this year we had a store “urbanMarket - Perth” on Gore street.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:01 am
Ken Gildner says:
Thank you for the link, Hugh! Your town’s BIA has done an excellent job of consolidating the local retail sector.
- Ken
July 22nd, 2007 at 6:26 pm
chris jikeli says:
maybe you could add this website
http://beautifulperth.com All About Perth Ontario
January 31st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Hugh Chatfield says:
re Ken Gildner’s comment
Thanks… we unfortunately had to shut down our store in Perth. The BIA decided to go its own way and the shop-heritage-perth.com site is now part of my companies promotional activity - celebrating the spectacular Heritage Town of Perth Ontario.
Perth Ontario now has a Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7086997274
July 12th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
John94 says:
Perth was actually home to the last duel in Ontario, not all of Canada. I live in Perth, I know. It is a beautiful place, I wouldn’t hesitate to visit it. ;)
July 17th, 2008 at 3:28 pm