Making history: the role of historic reconstructions within Canada's heritage conservation movement

This thesis examines the roles played by historic reconstructions in Canada: the intent of the project proponents, and the reception of such projects. To establish a framework for this analysis, the roles of historic reconstructions in France, Britain and the United States, three countries where heritage conservation activity began much earlier, are first examined. Sites included in this part of the thesis include: in France, Viollet-le-Duc's reconstruction work at Vezelay, Saint-Sernin, and Carcassonne; in Britain, Burges' Castell Coch, and the twentieth-century reconstructions of Castell Henllys and the Globe Theatre; and, in the United States, the Revere House, Fort Ticonderoga, Colonial Williamsburg, and New Echota. With the French, British and American use of historic reconstructions as a reference, four detailed case studies, examining Canadian sites, is presented. The first case study is the reconstruction of the Habitation at Port Royal, originally constructed in 1605, by French colonists. The second study considers two reconstructions, Fort George, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Place Royale, Quebec, which represent British and French heritage, respectively. The third reconstruction discussed is the town of Louisbourg. The fourth study is the proposed reconstruction of the Africville Church, a building destroyed in 1967 in the name of urban renewal, but a continuing symbol of the African-Canadian community within which it was located. Analysis of these sites has been undertaken with considerable reference to the current discussion of the relationship between history and collective memory, especially the work of Pierre Nora (in France), Raphael Samuel (in Britain), and John Bodnar (in the United States