It can be helpful for municipalities to identify objectives and priorities for identifying, evaluating and conserving properties or areas within the municipality. These would be based on available resources and expertise. This can assist municipalities in determining the best approach for surveying and researching properties in the community.

2.1 Know your community

The first step to guide the identification and evaluation of potential heritage properties within a community, is to understand the main themes and key periods of development and any specific events, activities, people and circumstances that have shaped the community. This is the important community context that should ensure that those properties with characteristics that hold cultural heritage value or interest to the community will be captured and considered for protection under the Ontario Heritage Act. Much of this background information can be learned from oral and published histories, as well as libraries, museums, archives, historical associations, and from residents. Whoever undertakes the identification of potential heritage properties should be familiar with the heritage of the community, including underrepresented and Indigenous populations, as this will give them local knowledge and perspective when identifying properties for including on the municipal register and when proceeding with designation. Compiling this information on the past and present context and development of the area into a report and keeping it as a reference resource will help with ongoing identification of potential heritage property.

For example, knowing the boundaries of Indigenous settlements, campsites, trade routes, or the first town plan or survey can help identify where the oldest cultural heritage resources may be found. Knowing the patterns of settlement, transportation routes and other local developments may indicate likely locations of former industrial sites, battlefields or landmarks where ruins or structures associated with that activity or event may exist. Areas that were annexed as the town grew may also have value or interest to their original municipality before annexation, such as a bordering hamlet or township. Areas that are or have been strongly associated with distinct cultural groups, such as Chinatowns, may also have value related to the social history of a municipality.

The Danforth Avenue Planning Study Area

Figure 4. The Danforth Ave Planning Study included a broad heritage survey in the form of a Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment (CHRA). As a result of heritage survey work, the boundaries of the CHRA were expanded beyond the planning study area to include Dawes Road, which may have been based on an Indigenous trail and was an historically important road within the community. (Image courtesy of the City of Toronto)

The more that is known about the overall history and development of an area, the easier it will be to understand the context and potential cultural heritage value or interest of a property. Sources such as community, family, institutional and business histories can outline the community context and help answer some initial questions such as:

  • What Indigenous communities have a claim, presence, interest or history in the area?
  • When and why was the area first colonized and settled by non-Indigenous peoples?
  • What patterns of development, migration and socio-economic or cultural demographics does the area display?
  • Is it near an early waterway, road, crossroads or railway line?
  • Do any people, events, places, commercial activities or other factors contribute to the cultural heritage of the community?
  • What communities have been left out of official histories? How might their history inform the cultural heritage value of a property?
  • Were there any floods, fires, tornadoes or other disasters that may have altered the property?
  • Are there certain types of industry that have developed or dominated the area at different time periods?
  • What sort of transportation networks have supported and sustained the establishment or growth of the area?
  • Are there notable individuals or events associated with the area? Are there any patterns related to the design or construction of buildings, structures and other features in the area?

2.2. Conduct a survey

One of the most effective ways of compiling and organizing information about potential heritage properties is to complete a survey or recording form and photographing properties from the nearest public vantage point. A survey may be for the purpose of documenting properties for future evaluation, or to evaluate them for the purpose of inclusion on the municipal register or designation.

Best practice includes ensuring that the essential details of street address and legal property description, type of cultural heritage resource, and general observations on the physical characteristics and context are recorded, by description and photography. If maintained as an electronic database, this information can easily be cross-referenced, updated, studied, and made available for research.

Individuals with training or expertise in recognizing and evaluating heritage properties are best suited to undertake the task of identifying potential heritage properties. An inexperienced researcher is more likely to identify the obvious "old looking" buildings or landmarks in good condition. An experienced researcher or heritage consultant will be able to see past the current appearance of a property and recognize its potential for cultural heritage value or interest.

Councils of municipalities with a municipal heritage committee could assign the task of identifying potential heritage properties to the committee and provide any municipal resources and staff support that might be needed.

Councils of municipalities without a municipal heritage committee may ask municipal staff to seek the assistance of a local heritage or community organization. Another option is to engage a heritage consultant with expertise in heritage properties. The Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries can be contacted for guidance on how to develop the municipal register.

The Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism (MCM) has screening checklists available to assist municipalities, property owners, developers, consultants and others to identify known and potential built heritage resources and cultural heritage landscapes: Criteria for Evaluating Potential for Built Heritage Resources and Cultural Heritage Landscapes. While these checklists were developed to support screening in advance of proposed development and infrastructure projects, they are a useful tool for the proactive identification of known or potential heritage properties.

Example: Property survey

This list itemizes the information that would be useful to record when undertaking a survey of properties that may be included on the municipal register. Other information items of local importance can be added. Researchers are encouraged to learn about the heritage of the community as a whole before undertaking a survey.

General information

  • Date of survey
  • Name and position of researcher
    • Municipal Heritage Committee
    • Municipal Staff
    • Heritage Consultant
    • Student
    • Other
  • What is your expertise or professional experience in identifying and describing a property with potential cultural heritage value or interest?

Property identification

  • Street address and legal description
  • Location/context
  • Name of Property, if any
  • Use (original and current)
  • Name and address of owner

Physical description and design information

  • Property Type
    Examples: Residential, commercial, institutional, agricultural or industrial building; public park, plaza or other space; infrastructure such as a water tower, canal or bridge; potential cultural heritage landscape; spiritual site; or ruins
  • Property Features
    Examples: landscape features such as spatial organization/physical layout of the property, trees, shrubs, gardens, paths, built heritage features, fences, monuments, statues, cemetery markers etc.; and attributes of such as massing of the structure, porch, balcony, chimney, transoms, dormers, pediments, etc.
  • Materials used
    Examples: Wood, stone, metal, plastic or other
  • Style (where applicable)
    Examples: Edwardian, Georgian, Gothic Revival, Mid-Century Modern
  • Any previous work or alteration
  • Architect/Builder/Designer/Artist (where applicable/known)

Historical or associative information

  • Time period associated with property
  • List sources from research or local traditions
  • Identify any features similar to other properties

Photographs

  • Photographs should be taken from the nearest publicly accessible viewpoint (Do not enter a property without permission).
  • The front or prominent feature will be used as the key image. Identify all images with north, south, east and west orientation. Photographs should also show the property in its context.

Recommendation

  • Identify whether the property has cultural heritage value or interest with specific reference to which criteria in O. Reg9/06 the property may meet. Where possible, make an initial recommendation or comment on whether to recommend including the property on the municipal register.

2.3. Benefits of surveys

Surveys provide an opportunity for a municipality to learn a great deal about its heritage properties during the surveying phase.

If the survey is comprehensive and the information is recorded in a consistent and objective way, patterns or themes in the cultural heritage value or interest of the identified properties often emerge.

For example, the survey may reveal the historic context of the area, how the buildings relate to that context and how they relate to one another. The survey may also demonstrate that one architectural style is characteristic of a neighbourhood; a certain type of technology is used for several industries; there is a popular local building material or design motif; or that there were similar design changes in types of engineering works such as bridges.

A comprehensive survey will also show differences and similarities in the features or attributes of the properties. Typical or similar examples can be compared to each other and will also highlight the uniqueness of other examples. Several properties may be associated with a particular event, but only one may stand out as a vivid expression of what that event truly meant to the community.

Report Cover: Region of Waterloo Public Building Inventory

Figure 5. Region of Waterloo Public Building Inventory. (Image courtesy of the Region of Waterloo)

Large-scale, systematic, and comprehensive heritage surveys can be an effective approach to identifying properties or areas within a municipality that are of potential cultural heritage value or interest. Requiring significant planning and resources, they are being successfully undertaken by municipalities of varying sizes in Ontario. Other municipalities may not have the resources required, and may consider instead smaller survey areas, or focusing a survey on a particular type of property.

2.4. Selecting properties for further research

Recognizing patterns, themes, similarities, and differences is an important part of studying and understanding a community’s heritage. This context also makes it easier to identify property that truly reflects what holds cultural heritage value or interest in the community and can help with choosing properties that warrant further research and heritage conservation.

For example, a community may have been founded when a prospector discovered a valuable mineral. The earliest industrial structures, dwellings, and institutions date to the opening of the mine and the first years of the mine’s operation. The mine may now be closed and a secondary economy may have taken its place. The heritage properties associated with the mining heritage of the community are found, through the survey of community properties, to be disappearing. The properties associated with mining will have a higher priority for further research and possibly protection under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Another example could be in a community where a fire destroyed structures built on the main street (see Figure 6). Any structures or remnants that survived the fire, or have evidence of the fire, are likely rare. These are important to understanding the character of this early, pre-fire period of the community history. Their loss now would have consequences to the study of the community’s heritage. These properties should be given priority in undertaking further research and conservation.

Rather than developing a rating system, municipalities may find it useful to develop a system for prioritizing properties to be considered for protection, either through inclusion on the municipal register or through designation under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Toronto Fire 1904

Figure 6. Toronto Fire 1904 (Image courtesy of Archives of Ontario)

2.5. An evolving process

The identification of potential heritage properties within a municipality is an evolving process, with revisions and updates made as needed as new information comes to light. As we seek to learn more about underrepresented groups, those narratives may reveal potential cultural heritage value or interest in properties that were previously overlooked. The process of identifying heritage properties within a community is never complete, and municipalities are encouraged to make a commitment to ongoing, active review of properties within the municipality. What a community sees as holding value should continue to grow, change, and be updated as the community understands more about the potential cultural heritage value or interest of properties within a municipality. Future decisions about the cultural heritage value or interest and conservation of properties should be made following appropriate historical research and site analysis of that specific property. Any further historical research and site analysis should be situated within a current understanding of the community’s heritage, informed by local knowledge and Elders, where appropriate.