Rideau Canal and Kingston Fortifications
Which site was the heritage designation of Murney Tower from 2007 to 2008?
Murney Tower Murney Tower is a Martello tower in Kingston , Ontario , Canada , whose construction dates to January 1846 . The Tower was built in response to the Oregon Crisis , which was a tense dispute over the border between British North America and the United States in the 1840s . The tower is one of five components of Kingstons fortifications that defended Kingston Harbour , the Naval Dockyard , military supply depot and the southern entrance of the Rideau Canal . Murney Tower complements the fortifications of Fort Henry , Ontario , Cathcart Tower on Cedar Island , Shoal Tower in the Confederation Basin and Fort Frederick on the grounds of the Royal Military College of Canada . In addition to protecting the harbour and approaches to Kingston , these fortifications were designed to concentrate fire on Gardiners Island ; it being the only place to effectively land artillery at the time . History . Background . When the tower was first constructed they planned to call it Murray Tower after the Master General of Ordnance . The land however , was owned by the Murney family and was called Murney Point by the locals . They thus began calling the tower , Murney Tower . This name stuck . The original inscription stone above the door read ‘Murray Tower.’ An ‘N’ was affixed over the first ‘R’ so that the current sign reads ‘MURNAY TOWER’ , a hybrid spelling of the two versions . Construction began on the tower on February 7 , 1846 . On June 15 of the same year the Oregon treaty was resolved , reducing tensions with the Americans . On June 19th , the walls were built to their full height . Construction of the tower was finished on November 10 , 1846 . Life in the tower . The tower was occupied from 1848 until 1885 . The main floor ( ground level ) was the barracks level where the soldiers and their families lived , ate , and slept . It was manned by the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment until 1870 , then by Battery A until 1880 , and Battery B until 1884 . After 1885 it was watched by the Princess of Wales Own Regiment . It could house a maximum of 24 soldiers and one officer or multiple soldiers and their families . A birth was recorded in the tower in 1882 . Sergeant Thomas Pugh and his wife Martha Mary lived in the tower with their seven children : William , Thomas , James , Murney May , Lillian , Bertha , and Sydney . Murney May Pugh was born in May while her family was living in the Tower . She eventually left Kingston to become a nurse and served overseas in the First World War . The Pugh family have had a significant impact on Kingston and Canadas history , serving over 470 years in the military . Architecture and defenses . The tower stands surrounded by a dry-ditch and is accessible only by a bridge . When the tower was originally built , there was no bridge to cross the dry-ditch . It is likely that soldiers would have accessed the tower through two ladders placed in the ditch . Murney Tower was constructed with locally quarried limestone with special brickwork on the barracks and basement levels of the towers interior . On the thickest side the walls are about 15 ft . thick at the base and 13 ft . thick up top . On the weaker side the walls are about 8 ft . thick . The walls are thicker on the south side because a naval attack from the Americans was the most likely form of attack and thus is what the tower is prepared for . Cannonballs from enemy ships should have theoretically bounced right off the walls . Currently , the barracks has two internal carronade cannons that would have fired 32-lb cannonballs directed out shuttered windows . These carronades had a range of 400 metres and would have been used for anti-personnel warfare in case of a land attack . These cannons could be moved about the interior embrasures , and so cover multiple approaches , including the bridge . The lower floor contained the ventilated gunpowder and artillery magazines and storage rooms , along with 4 capponieres , which acted as a defense system for the dry-ditch surrounding the Tower , allowing soldiers to fire through small loopholes at troops attacking the Towers base . Caponiers were unique to the Kingston Martello Towers , due to controversy surrounding them . The walls are much thinner in the caponiere than in the rest of the tower and are thus more vulnerable to attack . However , they also provided troops with the opportunity to protect the dry ditch through rifle loops , with strategic additional doors and rifle holes meant to keep out any enemy who successfully breached the caponier . The uppermost level is the artillery or gun platform , which supports a Blomefield cannon ( which also fired 32-lb cannonballs ) that could be rotated along an iron track , thus , providing full coverage around the Towers entire circumference . The Blomefield cannon was redesigned by Thomas Blomefield , Inspector of Artillery and Superintendent of the Royal Brass Foundry in 1780 . Blomefield redesigned the Armstrong cannon that had been previously used by the British forces , replacing it with a cannon that was simpler in design , lighter , and had more effective recoil restraint . The cannon weighs 6429 lbs , with a range of 2000 metres . Roofs are not original Mediterranean design of Martello towers , but a temporary snow roof was later added to the open gun platform two years after the towers construction protects the gun and keeps out the large amounts of snow . The addition of a roof is a common feature on Canadian Martellos . The original roof was installed in 1849 . In 1921 a windstorm removed the original wooden and tin roof . Parts of the roof date to the reconstruction that followed in 1925 , but the majority of the present roof dates from the 1970s and is not removable for safety reasons . Despite being one of the most sophisticated Martello towers designed and built by the British , Murney Tower quickly became obsolete due to improvements made in military weaponry and ship design . Present day . In 1925 , the museum was opened as a museum for the public by the Kingston Historical Society . It continues to be operated by the Kingston Historical Society as the Murney Tower Museum through the summer months ( May - Labour Day in September ) . Displays include three cannons ( 32-pounder ) , period uniforms , muskets , and other mid-19th century military artifacts . Although 14 Martello towers were built in Canada , only 9 are still standing , 4 of them in Kingston . Currently , only Murney Tower Museum is open to the public . Fort Henry has two towers that resemble Martello towers , however , they are branch ditch towers . Designations . In 1930 Murney Tower was designated a national historic site due to its sophisticated design . In 1989 the Kingston Fortifications were designated a National Historic Site of Canada . In 2007 , the Rideau Canal and Kingston Fortifications ( including Murney Tower ) were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It was recognized as having played an important role in the defense of British North America and in enabling Canada to develop its own political and cultural identity External links . - Murney Tower - Kingston Historical Society