OC Transpo’s 360-degree tour gives you a first-person view of these O-Train Line 1 stations. Please note, footage featured in the online tour was filmed prior to the September 2019 O-Train Line 1 launch. As the easternmost point of the O-Train Line 1, Blair Station is one of the system’s busiest transit hubs. It offers easy transfers between light rail and buses, as well as access to local commercial and residential areas. Lyon Station is an underground station just a few steps away from Sparks Street. A special feature is the non-integrated art piece called With Words as their Actions, created by PLANT, in Toronto. It celebrates women as keepers of history – and in particular, the 32 women who, in 1898, founded the Ottawa chapter of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Ottawa). Using the tour is simple: you can use your mouse to travel through the interior and change levels by clicking the station level guide in the bottom left corner. To read more about station features, click on the red and white O button seen throughout the station.

Alderlea, meaning meadow of alder trees, is a well-preserved heritage building, built at the height of the Victorian era. It is one of the finest examples of Italianate villa architecture in Ontario. Following careful restoration, this 19th-century mansion has plenty to offer. Come and see how the house has been adapted for use as a popular heritage venue.

Built at the turn of the 19th century, this building served as The Consolidated Lake Superior Company General Office Building – one of the finest examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Ontario. It was designated in 1993 and is now home to the Algoma Conservatory of Music, a regional centre for music education, performance and recording.

In 1978, Ottawa’s mayor recommended establishing a municipal arts centre, arts council, arts festival and a permanent art collection for the city. This building initially served as the Carleton County Court House, purpose-built in 1870-71. It was slated for demolition in 1980, but it was saved by the city and turned into the Arts Court. It officially opened in 1988.

The Community Garden Program was initiated by the City of Belleville Green Task Force in 2012. It gives residents a place to grow vegetables and flowers in designated parks. Anyone living in the Belleville area can apply. No special skills are required. The gardens include the Bayview Heights Community Gardens, the Ponton Park Community Gardens and the West Hill Park Community Gardens. Garden beds are awarded in March each year by lottery. Each name drawn will be assigned a garden bed and given exclusive use for the season (May to October). The program is free. Each garden bed provides 3.7 square metres (40 square feet) of growing space. Learn more about the gardens and the rules of the program and COVID-19 guidelines here. And, for Digital Doors Open, take a virtual tour of these community gardens here.

Most of Belleville's drinking water is treated at the Gerry O'Connor Water Treatment Plant, located in the west end overlooking the Bay of Quinte. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and treats 72 million litres of water daily, which is enough to fill Belleville's water tower 24 times over. Its distribution system serves over 40,000 residents and businesses every day through 224 km (139 miles) of water mains. Energy projects have been done at the plant. Old boilers were replaced with new models to reduce natural gas consumption. Roof insulation was upgraded to R18. And new solar energy products were brought online. Belleville was recognized as a leader in energy conservation in 2015 and 2017 by Save on Energy and Veridian, now Elexicon Energy. As part of Digital Doors Open, you can take a virtual tour and learn more about the Water Treatment Plant here.

Downtown Brampton has much to offer — and one of the best ways to see it is on foot. Or, during Digital Doors Open, on foot by video. Join tour guide Steve Collie — member of the Brampton Heritage Board and the Brampton Historical Society — for an informative and enlightening guided tour. Starting at the historical Four Corners, Collie takes you back in time by visiting many sites in Downtown Brampton. As well, you will learn about some of Brampton’s unique history — from the annual flooding of its main streets to devastating fires, from suspected hauntings to hidden architectural features, from Vaudeville theatres to underground bank vaults.

October 14, 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the explosion of the British Chemical Company – a defining moment for the town of Trenton. At the time of the explosion, Trenton was a town of only 4,500 people. Even though the town has grown and expanded in the decades since and is now a thriving community (and the site of the British Chemical Company, now ruins on the site of the old Gilmour sawmill), many people have no knowledge of this incident – and, clearly, there are no eyewitnesses left to tell the story. As part of Digital Doors Open, watch the film below (based on the book by John Melady) – entitled Playing with Fire, by Sean Scally – and learn what really happened that fateful night over a century ago. It is a story filled with heroes, rumours of conspiracy and of a country coming into its own.

Named after Colonel John Butler, a hero of the American Revolutionary War, this complex was an integral component of the military facilities built in the Niagara region to replace those destroyed during the War of 1812. Situated inland, out of range of the American artillery across the river, Butler's Barracks comprised more than 20 buildings by 1854. The only structures that survive from this period are the Commissariat Stores, Junior Commissariat Officers' Quarters, Men's Barracks and Gun Shed. The site was used by the British until 1870, after which it became a training camp for the Canadian militia. The barracks near John Street have been fully reconstructed and act as the headquarters for Parks Canada’s Southwestern Ontario Field Unit. The Commons was used extensively over the past two centuries for military training. It was also the site of the Native Council House at the perimeter of Paradise Grove from 1812 until the mid 1820s. For Digital Doors Open, explore The Commons through the video below.

The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), special operating agencies within the Department of Canadian Heritage, were created in 1972 to advance and promote the conservation of Canada’s heritage collections. The CCI is focused on moving conservation forward through science and practice. It helps heritage institutions care for and share their collections both here in Canada and abroad. The CHIN offers valuable collections management resources to the Canadian museum community and online public access to millions of collections records. The building they occupy houses over 20 laboratories that are used for conservation and research. It also has a library, metal workshop, wood workshop, photography studio – with an industrial radiography laboratory – and over 100 offices. Visitors will note the eccentric figure that sites atop the front entrance of the building, known as “Captain Conservation.” This imposing fibreglass sculpture tells an interesting story. CCI conservator Andrew Todd came across the sculpture in an Ottawa junkyard in the early 1980s. When Todd left the CCI, he left “the Captain” behind. In the early 1990s, however, then-Director General Charles Gruchy bought the statue from Todd for $1, making the Captain the CCI’s official mascot. During the statue’s restoration, a time capsule was placed in its cement base. The capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2042. As part of Digital Doors Open, take a virtual tour of the CCI through the video below and learn more about this fascinating site.

The Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton is a Canadian air force base located in Quinte West. It opened in 1931 as the Royal Canadian Air Force Station Trenton, intended to be a smaller, supporting base for the larger CFB Borden near Barrie. By 1937, however, it had eclipsed Camp Borden as the primary flying training centre. Trenton was the largest training centre in the British Commonwealth during the Second World War. Today, the site remains hugely important not only as one of Canada’s primary military bases and home to the National Air Force Museum of Canada, but it is the largest employer in Trenton and the starting point of the so-called Highway of Heroes – a stretch of highway that is often travelled by a convoy of vehicles carrying a fallen soldier’s body. Most recently, CFB Trenton was used as a quarantine facility for people returning to Canada during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of Digital Doors Open, learn more about the fascinating history of this site through the video below.

The official name of the Canadian Museum of Nature building is the Victoria Memorial Museum Building. Most of the exhibitions and programs are offered here. This museum is proud to reside in the first building in Canada created to house a national museum. It is a national historic site and the birthplace of Canada's national museums. The Victoria Memorial Museum Building's chief architect and designer, David Ewart, created a fanciful castle-like structure that has been described as Scottish baronial in design. Ewart's structures reflect the Romanesque and medieval styles of Europe, with a combination of Tudor and Gothic features. The massing and interior articulation of the building are influenced by the beaux-arts style, which stressed symmetrical, axial plans. The architecture was intended to mirror the Centre Block of Canada's original Parliament Buildings, one mile due north of the museum's site. Despite the influence of European styles, the building is firmly rooted in Canadian reality. It is one of the first public buildings to incorporate into its design animals and plants found in Canada – in windows, exterior walls and interior embellishments, as well as the two carved moose heads that guard the main entrance. Renewal of the museum was completed and the renovated museum building was celebrated on May 22, 2010 – the International Day for Biological Diversity. The Queen dedicated the new glass tower, called the Queens' Lantern, named for both Victoria and Elizabeth II. For Digital Doors Open, visitors can watch the video below to learn more about this engaging museum. Or they can take a 3D self-guided tour and wander the halls to explore the galleries and spaces. Or take a fun and interactive virtual tour of the museum's Natural Heritage Campus and go behind the scenes to see treasures from their collections.

Francis H. Clergue arrived in the Sault in 1894 and established the Lake Superior Power Company and the Sault Ste. Marie Pulp and Paper Company Limited, building his own machine shop and foundry to create the machines he needed to run the businesses. Today, the property features pubs, restaurants, event spaces, The Rink and the train station.

Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre (CDCC) is Carleton University’s arts, performance and learning centre, and is dedicated to providing a welcoming, professional and safe environment to foster programming that is multi-generational, diverse and inclusive. CDCC is the university’s first downtown Ottawa building and is managed by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The centre serves a variety of user groups from the university and community at large. It strives to ignite creative exploration and rich presentation opportunities, offering a unique event experience in a historical Ottawa venue for performances, workshops, lectures, meetings, curricular programming, lifelong learning courses and beyond. Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre is a beautiful 1912 heritage building located in Centretown - showcasing unique Romanesque Byzantine architectural styles. Reaching nearly 3,700 square metres (40,000 square feet), the building includes an 870-seat main performance hall that is visually and acoustically stunning, various multi-use event and activity spaces, classrooms and its own beautiful outdoor garden. For Digital Doors Open, watch the video below to learn more about this unique site.

By the 1880s, the Prince Edward County Railway had been running the 51-kilometre (32-mile) route from Picton to Trenton Junction for a few years before the arrival of Samuel Ritchie from Akron, Ohio – a financier and mine owner who had been buying up land north of Trenton. Ritchie would take over the Prince Edward County Railway to extend the line to become the Central Ontario Railway to serve his mining interests. But coupled with issues around the quality of the ore being transported and financial difficulties, the full extent of Ritchie’s vision was never realized before his death. The line was eventually absorbed by the Canadian National Railway and Samuel Ritchie’s Central Ontario Railway was all but forgotten. Watch the documentary below – entitled Ritchie’s Follie: The Central Ontario Railway, by Sean Scally – to learn more about this little-known piece of Trenton history.

Chaudière Falls is a subsidiary of Hydro Ottawa Holdings Inc. and is a 29-megawatt hydroelectric facility that feeds into the provincial grid and powers 20,000 homes with clean, renewable energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 115,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. Built entirely below ground, this facility was designed to have minimal-to-zero impacts on the visual, natural and aquatic environments. To ensure safe fish passage through the facility, they have incorporated leading technological solutions to protect migrating American eel, endangered under the Ontario Endangered Species Act (ESA). In addition, there are new spawning beds being built downstream to promote the recovery efforts associated with sturgeon (also endangered under the ESA). Chaudière Falls is home to Canada’s oldest hydroelectric station still in operation. It was responsible for lighting Ottawa’s streets with electricity and fuelled the industrial explosion of the mid-1800s by providing water power for the vast complex of lumber mills that once occupied the shoreline of the Ottawa River. The new site offers safe viewing platforms and greater public access in the form of a defined corridor on the roof of the new below-grade hydro facility. A new bridge across the intake canal is open for pedestrian and cyclist traffic. Using a restorative philosophy, they are maintaining elements of the city’s industrial past, including refurbishing the site’s oldest buildings that survived the Great Fire of 1900. As part of Digital Doors Open, enjoy a virtual tour of this site.

Built in 1872, this church was constructed to harmonize with the new Parliament buildings. Named the Cathedral of the Diocese in 1897, it continues to nurture faith in creative and traditional ways. Architectural features include soaring ceilings, magnificent windows and the bell tower, home to the 516-pound bronze bell cast for the original church in 1839.

Land for this church was donated by William Servos; Edward Hiscott and James Servos mortgaged their farms for the loans. The first service was held here on Christmas Eve 1853 and was led by Reverend A.F. Atkinson. In the adjacent cemetery, there is a burial ground for Black slaves who escaped from the United States and lived near Eight Mile Creek. While this church remains closed, you can learn more about this fascinating site through the video below as part of Digital Doors Open.

Throughout this store are architectural touches with reclaimed and re-purposed materials — including reclaimed brick, doors and woodwork, as well as a vintage window in the sales office and a countertop in the ladies’ washroom. Also, the art deco interior and fittings from Diana Sweets — a restaurant that operated for 75 years in St. Catharines — has now been fully restored inside!

Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, this award-winning building serves a representational role for the Ismaili Imamat in Canada, offering a centre for building relationships, enabling quiet diplomacy, and disseminating knowledge and information while reflecting the wide-ranging humanistic and humanitarian agenda of the Aga Khan Development Network and its associated institutions. Under the general direction of His Highness the Aga Khan, Maki has translated concepts rooted in Islamic tradition into a bold, modern design. This design is inspired by the natural luminosity and multi-faceted shape of rock crystal. Throughout the site, the play of light on transparent and translucent surfaces creates a dynamic visual effect. The notion of openness and transparency is carried through the building. The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat has received the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture (2012), and two awards from the Ontario Association of Architects: the Celebration of Excellence Award and People’s Choice Award (2010). As part of Digital Doors Open, explore this site through this engaging interactive virtual tour.

There are many ways to help educate a community about its history, but there is no better way than to encourage people to get out and experience it firsthand. When in-person walking tours were not possible, the Downtown Hamilton Business Improvement Association (BIA) created an initiative called Memory Lane. Memory Lane offers an in-depth self-guided tour with scannable QR codes. All you have to do to get started is to search out the QR codes across the BIA and scan them to reveal the history of that property, complete with vintage photos provided by Hamilton Public Libraries’ Local History and Archives department. Alternatively, you can navigate Memory Lane online and explore the past from the comfort of your home.

Built in 1812-14 by Charles Oakes Ermatinger, the Ermatinger Old Stone House is one of the oldest stone buildings west of Toronto. It has served many purposes over the years — as a hotel, a sheriff's residence and, prior to being abandoned, apartments. Restored in 1967, the building is now a historical site and museum. For Digital Doors Open, watch the video below to discover why the Old Stone House was built, explore the Clergue Blockhouse (the private residence of Francis H. Clergue) and hear the tale of the transformation from a North West Company powder magazine.

Constructed in 1880, this building was Niagara's first telephone exchange. In 2015, it was transformed into a brewery, but retains some of its original features. Original hemlock floor joists became the second-floor bar and tabletops. Some nods to the building's use as a telephone exchange include brewing numbers (instead of names) and a tasting board shaped like a rotary dial.

In the late 1800s, lumber companies were plowing through the old growth forests of Ontario, making and breaking towns and villages. Trenton was no different. In 1852, Gilmour and Company constructed a sawmill at the Trent Port along the Bay of Quinte. David Gilmour arrived in Trenton in 1879 to take over the mill operation, both expanding and mechanizing the business to take advantage of the plentiful supply of trees that made its way down the Trent River. To accompany their growing workforce, the company also built new homes in Trenton. Despite a devastating fire, Gilmour continued to grow his business. The Gilmour Mill had a huge impact on the expansion of Trenton, becoming the largest sawmill in the world. Its effects are felt still today. Watch the documentary below, by Sean Scally – entitled Lumberbaron: The Gilmour Years – and discover the story about the effect of the Gilmour Lumber Company on the region from Trenton to the Muskokas.

Built in 1872 as Goulbourn Township’s Town Hall, this site is now the Goulbourn Museum, home to interactive and hands-on exhibits. The museum shares the story of the former township by collecting, preserving, displaying and interpreting nearly 10,000 local artifacts as well as a 40,000-piece archaeological collection. The adjacent History Centre, built in 1961, was the former clerk building. Today, it is used for collections storage, office space and meeting space. The Goulbourn Museum features such exhibits as All the Woods & Waters (which explores the colonization of the township), The Village General Store (where visitors can dress up, shop or barter for supplies) and SCORCHED: The Great Fire of 1870 (which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the fire that had devastating consequences for Goulbourn Township). During Digital Doors Open, take virtual tours of their children’s toy, archaeological and military collections.