Lost window into Toronto's past has been resurrected after Google quietly killed it

A fascinating window into the past that was rolled out as part of the ill-fated Sidewalk Labs smart city project in Toronto was later scrapped after Google's parent company, Alphabet, pulled out of the ambitious planned digital neighbourhood in 2020.

However, the OldTO map has finally been revived.

In its brief existence, the interactive map database of archival photos had grown to be a valued resource for everyone from historians and researchers to armchair history enthusiasts looking to discover more about their city's history in an easy-to-digest format.

Years after the site was unceremoniously killed by the tech giant that created it, it has been resurrected thanks to the efforts of a local arts group.

Well, this is an incredible surprise: OldTO is back! https://t.co/TSgdPVGFMN

Looks like Back Lane Studios is behind it. Incredible!

— Bob Georgiou (@BobGeorgiouTO) November 3, 2024

The story behind the map

The OldTO map was first created by Sidewalk Labs senior software engineer Dan Vanderkam, with a design based on similar sites created to catalogue historical images of New York City and San Francisco.

Sidewalk Labs hosted the Toronto version — mapping thousands of images dating back to 1856 — until shortly after the company pulled out of the project on city's waterfront. 

However, the door was left open just a crack, as Sidewalk Labs made the source code of the website freely available for any takers.

Roncesvalles-based arts organization Back Lane Studios explains on its website that "we were sad to see OldTO.org vanish. One of our main projects is our Mapping our Memories endeavour. This photo map parallels this interest, and we are thrilled to be able to restore it."

Back Lane Studios worked with software developer Michael Lenaghan to bring the mapping tool back from the dead, work that the company says they "will be forever grateful" for.

How to use the map

Now back online and accessible to the masses, the OldTO map is once again offering the public a venue to go down rabbit holes of fascinating history deep dives.

All you have to do is click on one of the thousands of points on the map to pull up geocoded photos from these locations dating back over a century and a half. 

A screencap of the tool.

Here are the types of things you can find

Want to know what your neighbourhood looked like before all the condos? Curious about how the city has spread outward over the generations? All these answers and more are just a few clicks away, and you may even learn some other unexpected history about the city along the way.

But, for the most part, some things in Toronto just never change.

Toronto traffic is a hot-button issue in 2024, but congestion is nothing new at all. Even in the early automobile era, Front Street was a mess of parked cars as seen in this 1934 file photo.

Speaking of traffic woes, the seemingly cursed intersection of Yonge and Eglinton is known for its constant construction and road work related to the embattled Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

Fittingly, the first photo that pops up for this intersection is, unsurprisingly, road work — albeit carried out by a horse and cart at an undetermined date between 1907 and 1912.

Crowding at the ferry docks is another modern-day problem that Toronto residents would have also been familiar with over a century ago, evidenced by this 1909 photograph of groups queued to board boats to the island.

The OldTO map was missed by many during its multi-year absence, and here's hoping its second iteration will survive for longer.