Nearly two years after voting to demolish the former land registry office and archives building, Perth County has requested a zone change for the building from the City of Stratford to allow for the establishment of a small, 80-seat theatre and event space.
In 1910, when the need for a new registry office occurred, Perth County Council decided to build on the land located between the county jail and the court house. T.J. Hepburn, a local architect, was hired.
Hepburn was directed to design the new building to harmonize with the jail and court house, both which had been designed by George F. Durand in the 1880s, creating a significant landscape along St. Andrew Street. The new building was wired for electricity which had arrived in Stratford shortly before.
In 1981, having long outgrown its space in the basement of the Perth County Court House, the archives moved into the former registry office and the name changed to Stratford- Perth Archives.
In 2015, the Stratford-Perth Archives moved to a new location leaving the building empty and waiting to be re-purposed to continue the significant contribution to the community that it had made for over a century.
In 2019, when the Stratford & District Historical Society was created, the original registry office became the logo for the society.