Northwest corner of City Park, Stuart and Barrie Streets, Kingston\. It is down the path behind the RCAF memorial.
Commemoration
The first optical astronomical observatory in the province, the Kingston Observatory was established in 1855 after a solar eclipse roused public interest in astronomical studies. Under the auspices of a committee of British military officers and “gentlemen amateurs” a frame observatory was built here. It was transferred to the control of Queen’s College in 1861 and within a year a new brick structure had been erected on the site. Staffed by Nathan Fellows Dupuis, an able mathematician, the observatory, in addition to making conventional astronomical observations, produced barometric and thermal readings, fixed meridians for surveying and provided a time service. In 1881 it was moved to Queen’s and today four cylindrical stones, former supports of the telescope are all that remain of the old observatory building.
Background
The astronomers of the time were “gentlemen amateurs” who persuaded the city to pay the costs of running it. In 1861, it was sold to Queen’s University for $1 and the promise to provide the correct time to the City Hall clock. In 1880, it was moved and in 1901 torn down.
A successor observatory is in operation at Queen’s University today.
The observatory and the higher educational institutions are testaments to the growth of Upper Canada from its humble roots less than a century earlier.