Explore

Discover Toronto’s heritage anywhere, and at your fingertips—whether you’re standing in front of a prominent building or curled up on your couch at home.

Explore the city around you through our in-person events, online articles, and digital tours and exhibits.

Discover our Heritage Stories

Working with our partners, emerging historians, and volunteers, Heritage Toronto curates a series of stories and self-guided map experiences about the people, places, and events that have shaped the city.

Article

Oral History in the Digital Age

What is an effective way to document a community’s heritage? Let’s explore how oral history can highlight the lived experiences of individuals.
Map

Play the City: Free the Wheel

Rethink what you know of Toronto’s roller sports history! The story of roller sports in Toronto is one of persistence, joy, and unyielding community spirit.
Map

Lost Lavatories: The Decline and Fall of Toronto’s Public Restrooms

Uncover the history of civic debates, architectural ambition, and changing attitudes toward public space told by Toronto’s lost network of public lavatories.
Article

Vacancy at Old City Hall

Discover the history of Toronto’s Old City Hall, and the civic building’s mid-century moment of peril.
Map

A Sweet History of Toronto

Learn about the confections of Toronto’s past and present through this digital experience of the city’s history of sweets.
Map

Being Black on King

Discover the history of slavery, abolition, emancipation, and education through stories of resilience along King Street East.
Map

Powerhouses in Disguise

Explore the substations that power the city and discover the history of Toronto Hydro buildings that often go unnoticed.
Article

Facades and Facelifts at Exhibition Place

Dive into the architectural history of Exhibition Place and why the CNE’s most historic buildings endured false facades!
Article

Treasure Island

Discover Toronto’s “accidental wilderness”: how the Leslie Spit has become a refuge for wildlife and a vital urban greenspace.
Article

The 80-Year Tunnel at Billy Bishop Airport

Explore the long process to build the tunnel from Toronto’s mainland to the island airport, which took 80 years!
Article

Settling In: Women, Immigration, and Domestic Work in Early 20th Century Toronto

From the 1800s onward, Canada encouraged the immigration of single women willing to work as domestic servants.
Article

Rethinking Monuments: Black Histories and Black Futures

In Toronto, many counter-monuments connect to a long history of Black-led activism and advocacy.
Article

Bollywood Dreams and Bazaar Scenes

The Gerrard India Bazaar, Toronto’s ‘Little India’ was born by the founding of the Naaz theatre in the 1970s.
Article

City Kids to Farm Hands: The Home Children

Barnardo’s, the largest sender of Canada’s juvenile emigration program from Britain, had their headquarters in Toronto.
Article

Japanese Internment: Growing Community in Postwar Toronto

Discover how Japanese-Canadians, the target of race-based internment policies, built a postwar community in Toronto.
Article

The Toronto Caravan: A Festival for Everyone

Discover the history of the Metro Toronto International Caravan Festival, which celebrated Toronto’s rich cultural diversity for over 35 years.
Article

Black Feminist Activism in the 20th Century

Discover a transformative era in Toronto’s history when Black feminists fearlessly challenged norms and tackled issues ranging from racism, to police violence, to sexism.
Article, Map

North York Recipes for Healing

Meet East Asian community members who through oral histories and recipes share their culinary heritage.
Article

Black History Unburied: Toronto Necropolis Beyond the Grave

Discover notable Black community members from the 19th century, buried at one of the city’s oldest cemeteries, and how they contributed to our modern city.
Article

Black Placemaking: United Through Heritage

Discover how Toronto’s African and Caribbean diaspora shape dynamic spaces for the Black community to connect, invent, and create in the city.
Article

Toronto After Dark: A History of the DIY Scene

Dive into Toronto’s evolving nightlife at the turn of the millennium, exploring new trends, inclusive venues, and the rise of DIY scenes.
Map

Rebels On Stage and Off Script: Toronto’s Alternative Theatre Movement

Meet the rebellious companies, directors, writers, and actors who created Toronto’s alternative theatre scene from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Article

Art and Innovation at the Guild of All Arts

Explore the legacy on Toronto’s art scene built by a self-sufficient artists cooperative, where artists and craftspeople lived, worked, and created.
Article

Free Jazz in a Free City

Discover the Artists’ Jazz Band, a case study in how the city went from “Toronto the Good” to “Toronto the Cool” in the 1960s and 1970s.

Events

Check back often as we will be posting new events for our 2025 season. In-person programming includes walking tours, our annual Heritage Toronto Awards, and neighbourhood community events.

May 24 at 10:00 am – 3:30 pm
Doors Open: Discover TD Centre’s 54th Floor
This Doors Open weekend, visit the 54th floor at the Toronto-Dominion Centre, a mid-century modern gem.
May 25 at 10:00 am – 3:30 pm
Doors Open: Discover TD Centre’s 54th Floor
This Doors Open weekend, visit the 54th floor at the Toronto-Dominion Centre, a mid-century modern gem.
June 5 at 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Canary District: Movement and Migration Walking Tour
Explore the Canary District through the lens of movement and migration – once a bustling hub for immigrants, rail workers, and travellers.