Kars was originally named Wellington Village. In 1857, to distinguish it from another settlement called Wellington in Prince Edward County, because mail intended for one often went to the other, the village was renamed Kars in honour of the Turkish village’s valiant stand against Russian troops during the Crimean War.
By 1866, Kars was a post village with a population of 200 of the township of North Gower, on the Rideau River, one mile from the line of the Ottawa and Prescott Railway. It contained four general stores, and one steam sawmill. The last general store/post office permanently closed on January 1, 2018.
The village had two schools until 2011, when a decision was made to demolish Kars Public School in favour of an expansion of Rideau Valley Middle School. The enlarged school was renamed Kars on the Rideau Public School.
Osgoode-Kars United Church - N 45° 09.270 W 75° 38.943
The first building on this site was officially dedicated on March 10, 1861. It was a wooden structure, 30' x 60' with capacity for 150 people.
The current building was known as Wellington Methodist Church until Church Union in 1925. The locally quarried stone building was designed in the Gothic Revival style with a flat mill-cut stone trim of an earlier time.
Two distinctive front entry porches invite worshipers and village visitors. Trinity was designated as a Heritage Building by the Rideau Township Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee in 1983.
The bell tower contains a bronze cast bell approximately 3 feet in height and 3 feet in diameter that still rings every Sunday morning.
In early days the bell was rung continuously to signal a fire emergency in the community. Neighbours to the church had a key so they could go in to ring the bell. Older members also remember the continuous ringing of the bell to ring out V.E. Day in 1945.
The bell also rang in the new millennium.
Cenotaph - N 45° 09.174 W 075° 38.918
The Kars Cenotaph is on Rideau Valley Drive South in front of the Kars Public School. The Cenotaph was built in time for the Remembrance Day ceremony in 1978. It has since been moved to it's present site in time for the Remembrance Day ceremony in 2011. The site has paving stones engraved with the names of the fallen as well as ones that have been purchased to help fund the movement and construction of the new site along with its future maintenance.
St. John the Baptist Anglican Church - N 45° 09.102' W 75° 38.864'
St. John the Baptist Anglican Church originally stood on land which is now Elmview Cemetery. In late December 1904, it was cross-braced and moved on skids over Roger Stevens Creek and north to its present location where sheds were added to shelter the horses. The church has its original pine pews and floor boards and a three-sided balcony. In 1985 the church hall was added. This little white country church is beautifully preserved and both the hall and church are wheelchair accessible.
Kars Recreation Centre - N 45° 08.930 W 075° 38.877
The Kars Recreational Facility has a large hall, a full-sized baseball diamond, a practice diamond, two soccer pitches (one large and one small) and a full sized skating rink. There is a children’s play structure, a dock for boat launching, a gazebo and small building with a canteen and washrooms.
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church - N45° 08.625 W75° 38.779
Presbyterian roots in Kars date back to the early 1800’s, when it was a stop for itinerant preachers. From the 1840s until the present building was erected, St. Andrew’s met in the Lindsay’s Corner school house located at the corner of Lochead Road and Rideau Valley Drive South.