Toronto Historical Map viewer
February 18, 2014 4:37 PM Subscribe
The Toronto Historical Map viewer (created by Nathan Ng, also behind the Historical Maps of Toronto website) is a zoomable map that allows the viewer to shift between maps of the city at numerous points from 1818 to 2012.
A spiritual predecessor with New York, previously (although the 1924 functionality of that one seems to be kaput and replaced by a generic, city government map).
A spiritual predecessor with New York, previously (although the 1924 functionality of that one seems to be kaput and replaced by a generic, city government map).
The Cleveland and Pittsburgh sites for this project have been up for a couple of years, didn't know that they'd done Toronto
posted by octothorpe at 5:07 PM on February 18, 2014
posted by octothorpe at 5:07 PM on February 18, 2014
Tracking Garrison Creek through the last 200 years just literally took my breath away.
posted by 256 at 5:19 PM on February 18, 2014
posted by 256 at 5:19 PM on February 18, 2014
The Pittsburgh iteration of this was amazing as well, I'd love to see this done for Portland, OR.
posted by trackofalljades at 5:43 PM on February 18, 2014
posted by trackofalljades at 5:43 PM on February 18, 2014
The Cleveland and Pittsburgh sites for this project have been up for a couple of years
I went to grad school at Pitt for a couple of years in the late '90s and never knew that I was attending classes between Forbes Field and Syria Mosque. I would have made pilgrimages.
posted by Knappster at 5:46 PM on February 18, 2014
I went to grad school at Pitt for a couple of years in the late '90s and never knew that I was attending classes between Forbes Field and Syria Mosque. I would have made pilgrimages.
posted by Knappster at 5:46 PM on February 18, 2014
I went to grad school at Pitt for a couple of years in the late '90s and never knew that I was attending classes between Forbes Field and Syria Mosque.
You never noticed that the home plate to Forbes Field is in a bathroom, and a section of the outfield wall is on Schenley Plaza? You must not have spent much time near the library. ;)
posted by trackofalljades at 5:47 PM on February 18, 2014
You never noticed that the home plate to Forbes Field is in a bathroom, and a section of the outfield wall is on Schenley Plaza? You must not have spent much time near the library. ;)
posted by trackofalljades at 5:47 PM on February 18, 2014
Knappster: "I went to grad school at Pitt for a couple of years in the late '90s and never knew that I was attending classes between Forbes Field and Syria Mosque. I would have made pilgrimages."
Oh god, has the Mosque been gone that long? I am old.
posted by octothorpe at 5:52 PM on February 18, 2014
Oh god, has the Mosque been gone that long? I am old.
posted by octothorpe at 5:52 PM on February 18, 2014
You never noticed that the home plate to Forbes Field is in a bathroom, and a section of the outfield wall is on Schenley Plaza? You must not have spent much time near the library.
I spent loads of time at Hillman, but didn't venture past it too often. I vaguely remember attending an orientation or something at Posvar Hall, but I wasn't looking for baseball artifacts at the time. Too dedicated to my studies, I guess.
posted by Knappster at 5:54 PM on February 18, 2014
I spent loads of time at Hillman, but didn't venture past it too often. I vaguely remember attending an orientation or something at Posvar Hall, but I wasn't looking for baseball artifacts at the time. Too dedicated to my studies, I guess.
posted by Knappster at 5:54 PM on February 18, 2014
So some time between 1924 and 1947, my portion of the Junction got even more fucked up than it already was.
Awesome site! Typing in specific street addresses helps a lot, too.
posted by maudlin at 7:06 PM on February 18, 2014
Awesome site! Typing in specific street addresses helps a lot, too.
posted by maudlin at 7:06 PM on February 18, 2014
The 1947 air photos are pretty neat, and extend out into the current Toronto boundaries. My neighbourhood is mostly fields, as the big build didn't start until the 1950s.
The maps are available as WMTS for you GIS nerds. It would be nice if they were open, rather than in look-but-don't-touch mode. And of course, ESRI makes it as hard as possible for non-ESRI users to access them.
posted by scruss at 4:18 AM on February 19, 2014
The maps are available as WMTS for you GIS nerds. It would be nice if they were open, rather than in look-but-don't-touch mode. And of course, ESRI makes it as hard as possible for non-ESRI users to access them.
posted by scruss at 4:18 AM on February 19, 2014
Regarding the 1947 air photos, you can download each of the georeferenced images here, with world files and ground control points for each.
posted by avocet at 7:10 AM on February 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by avocet at 7:10 AM on February 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
I like the gradual morphing of the city and the place names -- the corner where the Hard Rock Cafe now stands -- currently Yonge and Dundas -- was Yonge and Wilton a century ago, and Yonge and Crookshank fifty years before that (and a pleasant field fifty years further back still).
I like being able to map now-vanished locations into the city with more certainty: I knew much of the Ward had been demolished to make way for Nathan Philips Square and I am pleased to see that this store at the corner of Elizabeth and Albert -- two streets which have not met for fifty years -- is almost precisely where the Henry Moore sculpture in front of City Hall now stands.
And it is nice that the block with the original Government House (now Metro Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, bounded by King, John, Wellington and Simcoe) was a CPR freight yard in 1924, at which time some harried draftsman added "FULL OF TRACKS, FULL OF TRACKS." Perhaps he pondered the effort needed to draw every track individually and decided to have lunch instead.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:28 AM on February 19, 2014
I like being able to map now-vanished locations into the city with more certainty: I knew much of the Ward had been demolished to make way for Nathan Philips Square and I am pleased to see that this store at the corner of Elizabeth and Albert -- two streets which have not met for fifty years -- is almost precisely where the Henry Moore sculpture in front of City Hall now stands.
And it is nice that the block with the original Government House (now Metro Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, bounded by King, John, Wellington and Simcoe) was a CPR freight yard in 1924, at which time some harried draftsman added "FULL OF TRACKS, FULL OF TRACKS." Perhaps he pondered the effort needed to draw every track individually and decided to have lunch instead.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:28 AM on February 19, 2014
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posted by bicyclefish at 5:04 PM on February 18, 2014