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Coloured illustration of King St East from the vantage point of looking east from Leader Lane. Buildings line either side of the road, pedestrians are walking along the side walk and on the road there are several horse-drawn carriages. In the background, the spire of St James Cathedral and Lake Ontario is visible.

Creating Toronto: The Story of a City

From its beginnings as a small colonial settlement on the north shore of Lake Ontario, Toronto has grown into Canada’s largest city. Explore its historic downtown and discover the places and events that helped build the multicultural metropolis.

Discover Toronto’s early beginnings!

Explore the map below from the comfort of your home or take it with you on a walk through the historic St Lawrence Neighbourhood, once the Town of York. Discover hidden gems and little known stories that have shaped Toronto into the bustling city it is today.

Creating Toronto is also available as a streaming and downloadable audio tour: the full tour is available below as a single track, or you can listen to individual tracks on each of the digital map stops. You can also listen to the tour directly on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.

The expansion of our tours program to a digital platform was made possible by the generous support of our Tours Program Presenting Sponsor, TD Bank and The Ready Commitment.  This digital tour, and the walking tour it is based on, were developed as part of our Emerging Historian program, by Shannon Hamilton (2018) and Heather Hepburn (2020), in partnership with the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association. The audio tour was narrated by Emerging Historian Mitchell Daniels with production assistance and editing by Quinton Bradshaw and CJRU.

Choose a marker to begin your tour

If you’re exploring on a mobile device, please abide by all traffic and safety rules. Only look at your device when you are standing stationary in a safe location!

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Make an ongoing investment in Heritage Toronto’s mission and future: become a monthly donor today.

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