Preserve Community Heritage

Each year a community in the Lake of Bays area is researched and documented in video and printed format. Our Annual General Meeting is held close to the recorded community where the video is shown, and owners of heritage cottages or buildings are presented with heritage plaques. The community history booklets are available for sale after the meeting and many of them have become collectors’ items. As of 2020, twelve communities have been documented in this way. Often a walking tour of the community follows the meeting.

Prior to 2007, the focus was on heritage buildings and the history was recorded through photographs only. There are approximately 65 heritage plaques in the Lake of Bays area indicating the year the building was constructed. 

Memoirs are personal accounts written by our members about their families and life in the early days at Lake of Bays. They cover important parts of our history that will not be lost, thanks to their authors. They are published here with the permission of their authors. Submissions of further memoirs are welcomed.

We invite you into this rich community heritage through the map below. Zone in on the area of the lake you are interested in and click on a House Icon to view a community or a Tree Icon to see a memoir. Or, scroll through the lists of Communities, Memoirs and Heritage Awards.