National Historic Site of Canada

Sir John Johnson House National Historic Site of Canada

Williamstown, Ontario

Also known as Sir John Johnson House, Maison-de-Sir-John-Johnson

General view of Sir John Johnson House, showing the symmetrical, five-bay main elevation, with central entry, gable and chimney, and simple, regularly spaced fenestration, 2005.

General view of Sir John Johnson House, showing the symmetrical, five-bay main elevation, with central entry, gable and chimney, and simple, regularly spaced fenestration, 2005.

Photo: Parks Canada Agency/Agence parcs Canada, 2005.

Built
1784–1792
Recognized
1961
By
Government of Canada

The register’s text, word for word

Description

Sir John Johnson House National Historic Site is a large, wooden house of typical nineteenth-century Ontario vernacular design, set amidst spacious grounds on the banks of the Raisin River in Williamstown, Ontario. The evolved house is built around a late eighteenth-century core. The designation refers to the house, as well as a shed, an ice-house, the remains of the west wing and the burnt layer from initial clearing of the land.

Heritage value

Sir John Johnson House was declared a national historic site for:

  • its historical association with Sir John Johnson,
  • its age as one of the oldest surviving buildings in Ontario,
  • its architectural design.

The heritage value of Sir John Johnson House lies in its illustration of late eighteenth-century frontier building techniques and in its association with Sir John Johnson. The original core of the house was built 1784-1792 as part of a complex of buildings centered around a mill. It was expanded around 1813-1830 (west addition), and in the early 1860s (east addition).

SourceHSMBC Minutes, May 1961; Commemorative Integrity Statement, 1996.

Character‑defining elements

Key features contributing to the heritage value of this site include:

  • the irregular, vernacular massing of the evolved house as expressed in its T-shaped footprint with a low rectangular one-and-a-half-storey original structure under a pitched roof broken by gables and chimneys, an extension to the east of similar massing and roof form, and a two-storey addition with a steeply pitched roof, and set at right angles to the original core,
  • the siting and orientation on a knoll with viewplanes over the Raisin River,
  • the eighteenth-century core in its surviving classically inspired design, form and materials including:
  • the symmetrical, five-bay main elevation, with central entry, gable and chimney, and simple, regularly spaced fenestration,
  • the front-sloping pitched roof,
  • evidence of original centre-hall interior plan,
  • its pièce sur pièce log construction,
  • surviving original pine log, wood clapboarding and shingling,
  • archaeological features associated with the Sir John Johnson period including remains of the first west wing construction and the burnt layer from initial clearing of the land.

End of the register’s text

Location

Williamstown, Ontario, Canada

45.14499° N, 74.57953° W

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Nearby

All 4 places in Williamstown

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From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, as last updated on December 12, 2025. The register’s text is shown word for word.