Niagara District Court House National Historic Site of Canada, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Posted by: 
colincan
N 43° 15.302 W 079° 04.301
17T E 656524 N 4790941
The Niagara District Court House anchors a town centre brimming with fine heritage structures. It is befitting this building is prominent in what after all was Canada’s capital, in the days when Niagara-on-the-Lake was known as Newark.
Waymark Code: WMEFRW
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 05/23/2012
Views: 22
Niagara-on-the-Lake is synonymous with the Shaw Festival of theatrical performance, named for George Bernard Shaw. The festival’s debut in 1962 took place in the former court room of the Niagara District Court House, converted into the Shaw Theatre of over 300 seats. Despite its name implying a legal use, the building, constructed 1846-1848, served for little more than a decade as a court house, that function moving to St Catharines, the then new seat of regional government. The architect of the court house was one of renown, William Thomas, one of Toronto’s finest. He employed the Italianate blended with the Neoclassical style, a hybrid used on more than one occasion for public buildings. Essentially over its lifetime the court house has served civic functions, not judicial ones. It has been the town hall and the public library and has housed municipal and federal offices. On the town’s main thoroughfare, Queen Street, the court house is the building par excellence. The Niagara District Court House was designated of national importance in 1980 and was plaqued by the federal government in 1984. In 1988 the Ontario Heritage Trust secured a heritage easement on the building.
Classification: National Historic Site
Province or Territory: Ontario
Location - City name/Town name: Niagara-on-the-Lake
Link to Parks Canada entry (must be on www.pc.gc.ca): [Web Link]
Link to HistoricPlaces.ca: [Web Link]
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