Why Kingston, Ontario in Canada should be a UNESCO World Heritage City.

1. UNESCO can save the Kingston Penitentiary and the Prison for Women.
2. Future real estate development will obscure views of landmarks - the Prison for Women, Rockwood. and Collins Bay Penitentiary.
3. All the buildings listed below were constructed with limestone.
4. They were constructed by Kingston Penitentiary inmates.
5. The buildings are historic, and most of them share a common theme.

     The buildings in question are:

1. Kingston Penitentiary
2. The Prison for Women
3. Collins Bay Penitentiary
4. The Church of the Good Thief
5. Rockwood Asylum
6. The Penitentiary Water Tower
7. Stone Gables
8. Isabel McNeill House; the Deputy Warden's House; a half-way house for females.
9. The Warden's House - Now the Penitentiary Museum.

  Kingston, Ontario is known as "The Limestone City", "Canada's Penitentiary City" and the city's motto is "Where history and innovation thrive".
 The Australian Convict Sites are protected by UNESCO---because they served a common purpose; because inmates helped to build the prisons, and tunnels connected some of the buildings.In order to be nominated, the properties have to be already classified. All the before mentioned structures have been classified by either the federal, provincial or city governments:

• Kingston Penitentiary - A National Historic Site of Canada, Classified Federal Heritage Building,
• Prison for Women - Recognized Federal Heritage Building
• Collins Bay Penitentiary - The Administration Building is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building.
• The Church of the Good Thief - Designated by the City of Kingston under Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act.
• Rockwood Asylum - The entire property where Rockwood is located is a province of Ontario cultural heritage landscape, recognized through Section 7 of the City's Official Plan (2010). The properties are also designated under Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act.
• The Penitentiary Water Tower - In 1969 Queen's University bought 61 acres of land from Corrections Canada. A Kingston Penitentiary prison farm and a limestone quarry were located on the site. The Queen's University West Campus on Union Street is on the City of Kingston Heritage Register.
• Stone Gables - A Recognized Federal Heritage Building. 
• Isabel McNeill House - Part of the Kingston Penitentiary National Historic Site of Canada.
• The Warden's House - Part of the Kingston Penitentiary National Historic Site of Canada.

A tunnel connects the Kingston Penitentiary to the Prison for Women. Criteria that applies to the nine buildings that should be protected by the United Nations:

1.) Definition of Cultural and Natural Heritage
Article 1
For the purpose of this convention, the following shall be considered as "cultural heritage";
      groups of buildings, groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture; their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding value from the point of view of history, art or science. (From: Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.)



The Prison for Women was built by Kingston Penitentiary inmates, see the document below:

Staff at the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in Gatineau, Quebec mailed this report to me.

Canada's Penitentiary Museum is located in the former Kingston Penitentiary Warden's House at 555 King Street West. I visited the museum a few years ago: