Restoration work began yesterday on five of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s historic ordnance boundary stones — limestone markers from the early 1800s that once defined the edges of four British military land reserves.
The town announced this part of the project, which will see five stones cleaned, reset and protected with barriers, in an Aug. 20 Facebook post
The project is joined by the municipal heritage committee, town staff, NOTL Museum board director Ted Rumble, surveyors from the Larocque Group, Memorial Restoration and private landowners.
After Rumble first pressed council in 2020 to protect the stones, the initiative officially began in 2021.
In 2023, council set aside $5,000 to restore a stone and $7,500 last year to expand the work.
To date, 19 of the original 37 stones have been located. These originally marked four distinct reserves: Simcoe Park, Queen’s Royal Park, the Commons and the present-day NOTL Golf Club.
Each one is marked with an upward arrow and the initials “BO,” for Board of Ordnance, the British Crown’s custodian of military property from 1687 to 1855.
Marah Minor, the town’s communications co-ordinator, said no further restoration work is scheduled for this year.
