The R.M. of St. Clements Heritage Committee discovered 177 historic sites through its heritage building inventory, a project recommended by the Historic Resources Branch of Manitoba as a good place to start for heritage planning. This was one of the first projects of the heritage committee, in 1998. An update to this inventory was done in 2012, and a new inventory was done for Grand Marais.

A municipal heritage building inventory is a photographic and written record of a community’s significant buildings and historic places. These can include buildings readily associated with a community’s historic fabric: old stores, churches, post offices etc., and less obvious sites such as water towers, bridges, dams, exhibition sites, period landscapes and industrial sites like foundries and brickyards.

The inventory gave the Heritage Committee a baseline and raw information that helped determine how to develop the website, which sites to commemorate with a plaque, which sites to use in the geocaches, and which sites best tell the story of the R.M. of St. Clements.

St. Judes Church of Grand Marais

An example:

St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Grand Marais, a poplar log structure built in 1896 by the Métis people of the area, was identified as the most historically important structure in the Grand Marais community. The Anglican Church Diocese would like to demolish this building, as it is not in use at this time. The R.M. of St. Clements and the Heritage Committee are working with the Friends of St. Jude’s Inc. to find a way to save this important building and preserve it for future generations.

Resources

The Historic Resources Branch has produced a detailed manual for doing an inventory called How-to Series 2: A Guide to Conducting A Municipal Heritage Building Inventory.

Contact the Historic Resources Branch(website http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/) for a free copy.