Wilfrid Laurier - National Historic Sites

National Historic Sites

Laurier is commemorated by three National Historic Sites of Canada.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier National Historic Site is in his birthplace, Saint-Lin-Laurentides, a town 60 km north of Montreal. Its establishment reflected an early desire to not only mark his birthplace (a plaque in 1925 and a monument in 1927), but to create a shrine to Laurier in the 1930s. Despite early doubts and later confirmation that the house designated as the birthplace was neither Laurier's nor on its original site, its development, and the building of a museum, satisfied the goal of honoring the man and reflecting his early life.

His handsome brick residence in Ottawa is known as Laurier House National Historic Site, at the corner of what is now Laurier Avenue and Chapel Street. In their will, the Lauriers left the house to Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who in turn donated it to Canada upon his death. Both sites are administered by Parks Canada as part of the national park system.

The 1876 Italianate residence of the Lauriers during his years as a lawyer and Member of Parliament, in Victoriaville, Quebec, is designated Wilfrid Laurier House National Historic Site, and is a privately owned museum operated as the Laurier Museum.

In November 2011, Wilfrid Laurier University located in Waterloo, Ontario unveiled a statue depicting a young, passionate Sir Wilfrid Laurier in his younger years sitting on a bench, thinking deeply about the future.