Description of Historic Place

The Orange Riot Site is the present-day corner of Victoria and Boyne Streets in Woodstock. These two quiet residential streets are lined by century homes and two churches in the downtown area.

Heritage Value

The Orange Riot Site is designated a Local Historic Place for its historical and social significance in the Woodstock Riot of 1847, also known as the Orange Riot.

Accounts of the events of July 12, 1847 vary, but it is agreed that between two and three hundred Orangemen clashed with an equal number of Irish Catholics at the corner of Victoria and Boyne, resulting in ten deaths and scores of gunshot and stab wounds. The disturbance was the cumulative result of religious and racial tensions that had been festering for years prior. Some of Woodstock’s most notable residents were on the scene, including Sherriff Winslow and House of Assembly representative Charles Connell.

The Orange Riot Site is also significant as a symbol of a period of religious turbulence in Woodstock’s past. Although the events that took place there are not considered positive by today’s ideas, the fact remains that the Woodstock Riot of 1847 and the ensuing trial, in which only Catholics were brought to trial, produced a lasting effect on the social, religious, and judicial structure in the town.

Source: Carleton County Historical Society Historic Places, “Corner of Victoria and Boyne Streets”

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Orange Riot Site include:
- the name “Boyne Street”, named for the Battle of the Boyne;
- close proximity to St. Paul’s Protestant Church;
- now empty adjacent lot where the Orange Hall formerly stood.