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Rare Maps of Toronto

Fort York and Garrison Common Maps

Thanks JT & thecharioteer for your kind words.

I would like to draw your attention to a new project of mine: Fort York and Garrison Common Maps.



A collaboration with (noted local historian) Stephen Otto and The Friends of Fort York, this site has been launched to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of York. Using maps, we visually explore the complex evolution of usage and ownership of Fort York and the surrounding military reserve lands — an area of over 1,000 acres encompassing the Exhibition Grounds, the Lunatic Asylum, and Liberty Village.

I'm a little biased obviously, but it is an unprecedented aggregation of historical maps and images relating to that neighbourhood, and I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in the birthplace of urban Toronto. A couple of the maps have not been previously digitized or photographed, so they may not have been seen by many people up to this point in time. It is my pleasure to share them with you.

The site is still under construction in a couple of spots but I'm sure you folks won't mind a rough edge here and there. It is intended to serve as a companion site to my other two historical Toronto mapping projects, Historical Maps of Toronto, and Goad's Atlas of Toronto—Online!

Enjoy!
 
plink said:
Thanks JT & thecharioteer for your kind words.

I would like to draw your attention to a new project of mine: Fort York and Garrison Common Maps.



Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Magnificent site, plink!
Many of us will be spending long hours there.
On my first brief visit, I noted the reference to the "river Donn" (1813 Williams sketch/map).
I've never before seen that spelling of our "famous" river.
Is this a revelation?
 
Great maps. I felt like I found the jackpot when I discovered this for my city(Cleveland)

(Zooming in is when it gets cool. Also remove the blue historic placemarks by clicking on the red thumbtack)
http://peoplemaps.esri.com/cleveland/

I would love to see something similar made for Toronto and other cities. The old building footprint/descriptions, lost streets, and old street names are very interesting.
 
DM4 said:
Great maps. I felt like I found the jackpot when I discovered this for my city(Cleveland)

(Zooming in is when it gets cool. Also remove the blue historic placemarks by clicking on the red thumbtack)
http://peoplemaps.esri.com/cleveland/

I would love to see something similar made for Toronto and other cities. The old building footprint/descriptions, lost streets, and old street names are very interesting.
Click to expand...

Amazing website, DM4. Thank you!
 
There's some lovely coverage by John Lorinc in today's Globe of the story behind the Fort York mapping project: Mapping Fort York’s legacy with 21st-century tools.

Between the launch of the project earlier this spring (as mentioned in this thread) and now we've continued to discover, research and add a considerable number of maps and images, all with commentary to provide historical context; it's worth revisiting the site if you haven't seen it since then.

[Disclosure: I am one of the gentlemen discussed in the article. Ahem :)]
 
wwwebster said:
“Wadsworth & Unwin's map of the City of Toronto [shewing real estate exemptions from taxation], compiled and drawn by Maurice Gaviller, C.E. & P.L.S., from plans filed in the Registry Office and the most recent surveys, 1872. Wadsworth & Unwin, P.L. Surveyors, Toronto, Sepr. 1st, 1872. City Engineers Office, Toronto, Jany 1878 [Signature illegible]. Copp, Clark & Co. Lith. Toronto. Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1872, by Wadsworth & Unwin, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.”

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/nmc/n0025641k_a1.pdf

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/nmc/n0025641k_a2.pdf

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/nmc/n0025641k_a3.pdf
Click to expand...

I wish I commented on this earlier. Interesting that the street I am living on now used to be called Ontario Street, then Muter Street. Palmerston Boulevard has a much nicer name, doesn't it?
 
ShonTron said:
I wish I commented on this earlier. Interesting that the street I am living on now used to be called Ontario Street, then Muter Street. Palmerston Boulevard has a much nicer name, doesn't it?
Click to expand...

The change from Ontario Street would have been inevitable as the city grew westward, but the reason for the change from Muter is a bit more obscure. Not a lot of info on the wwweb, but Lt. Col. Robert Muter of Niagara married Anne Knowles Cameron of Toronto (sister of John Hillyard Cameron) on March 6, 1849. He purchased land in the Crookshank Estate on July 1, 1853, and it appears he built a large brick house on the west side of Markham Street just south of Dundas (then Arthur), living there until his death circa 1874. The street appears as “Muter†in the 1888 directory, and as “Palmerston†in the 1889. Don’t know why it was changed, but yes, Palmerston sounds much better. :)
 
Hey, that's my neighbourhood too!

Robert Muter, born 1786 in Scotland, served in the Peninsular campaign and at Waterloo with the Royal Fusiliers, and at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Settled in the Isle of man in the 1820s, and perhaps did not come to Canada until the 1840s when the Royal Canadian Rifles were raised. His marriage to Ann was his second, and perhaps he had no issue in Canada. His son Col. Dunbar Douglas Muter served in India and China, was later knighted and buried at Windsor in 1909. A good imperial military family.
 
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