Welcome to the Mayor's Heritage Awards page.

The Mayor's Heritage Awards was relaunched in 2026 to recognize excellence in local built heritage preservation and restoration efforts.

The Mayor's Heritage Awards is an initiative of Chatham-Kent's Municipal Heritage Committee.

Heritage Day was February 21, 2026!

The day featured a free Heritage Day daytime program and the Mayor's Heritage Awards Reception in the evening.

Heritage Day:

• Displays from the Municipal Heritage Committee and other historical and local heritage groups
• Local authors
• Information on a variety of Chatham-Kent's Heritage Properties
• Activities for kids of all ages

• Heritage Day was a huge success - over 175 people attended the event throughout the evening!

Mayor’s Heritage Awards Reception:

• Social & Meet & Greet
• Food & drinks
• Keynote speaker
• Awards Ceremony - winners announced - see below
• The Mayor's Heritage Awards Reception was another notable success - over 90 people attended!

The Winners are in!

Awards were handed out in 5 categories:

1. Residential Preservation and Restoration Award

• This award recognizes exceptional efforts to preserve and restore heritage homes to an original or historically accurate state
• Winning Property: 384 St George Street North, Dresden

2. Industrial and Commercial Award

• This award recognizes exceptional efforts to preserve and restore heritage commercial buildings (i.e. downtown buildings) and heritage industrial buildings (i.e. factories, warehouses, mills, etc.)
• Winning Property: 103, 107, 111, 123, 131 Brown Street, Dresden

3. Rural and Agricultural Award

• This award recognizes exceptional efforts to preserve and restore rural and agricultural heritage buildings (i.e. farmhouses, barns, shops etc.)
• Winning Property: 11052 River Line, Chatham

4. Adaptive Reuse Award

• This award recognizes exceptional efforts to sensitively alter heritage buildings for a use that is different than what they were initially intended for (i.e. converting an old factory into apartments)
• Winning Property: 44 William Street North, Chatham

5. People's Choice Award

• This award recognizes efforts to preserve and restore heritage buildings that are popular in the community
• Winning Property: 384 St George Street North, Dresden

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who made the 2026 Mayors Heritage Awards a success!

12 properties were nominated for awards - you can find information about each property in the document library on the right of your screen.