Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto: Fire Insurance Maps from the Victorian Era

1884 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

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Simple online access to the Atlas of the City of Toronto by the Chas. E. Goad Company.

Atlas Editions available: 1884, 1890, 1893, 1899, 1903, 1910, 1913, 1924.
Bonus Updates: 1880 Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto, 1889 Insurance Plan, The Great Toronto Fires of 1904 — and 1895
More Maps: Check out Historical Maps of Toronto — includes the 1858 WS Boulton Atlas and the 1842 Cane Topological Map of the City and Liberties of Toronto
See also: Toronto Historical Map Viewer; A Primer on Goad’s Atlases

Support the site: Buy me a coffee
About this Project: Background
Image hosting provided via the generous support of the University of Toronto Map & Data Library.

Images courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto -- Central District:

Toronto -- Western District
‘West of Dufferin’

Toronto -- Northern District
‘North of Dupont’

Toronto -- Eastern District
‘East of Leslie’

Atlas Title Page, Description, and Street Index
Click the images to expand...

1884 Goads Atlas of the City of Toronto Cover

1884 Goads Atlas of the City of Toronto title page

Notes on compilation, Table of Contents, Street Index

Suburban(!) index

See also this Yorkville plate via LAC.

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1913 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

2013-01-26T17:18:00.004-05:00

The 1913 update was based on the three-volume 1910 edition

Note: For this version, I’ve lazily re-used the key plates from the 1910 edition. The linked, individual detail plates are from 1913. This was an expedient measure that saved considerable time and effort for me; however there are minor differences in the 1913 update. Should you need to examine the key plates specifically, here are links to the individual sheets for your inspection:

Central city (Volume 1, Plate 1a)
Waterfront (Plate 1b)
West of Dufferin Street, south of Annette Street (Plate 51)
West of Spadina Road, north of Annette Street (Plate 52)
East of Pape Avenue, south of St. Clair Avenue (Plate 101)
East of Bathurst Street, north of St. Clair Avenue (Plate 102)

I also do not have scans of the title pages and do not know if they were meaningfully altered; I refer you instead to the 1910 edition if you want to see them.

Images courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto -- Volume 1 Plate 1A
“Central District: Dufferin Street, Pape Avenue, North to St. Clair Avenue.”

Toronto -- Volume 1 Plate 1B
“Water Front and Island.”

Toronto -- Volume 2 Plate 51
“West of Dufferin Street, South of Annette Street.”

Toronto -- Volume 2 Plate 52
“West of Spadina Road North of Annette Street.”

Toronto -- Volume 3 Plate 101
“East of Pape Avenue, South of St. Clair Avenue.”

Toronto -- Volume 3 Plate 102
“East Bathurst Streets, North of St. Clair Avenue.”

And yes, I know 1913 is not in the Victorian era.

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1924 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

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The 1924 update was based on the three-volume 1910 edition

Note: For this version, I’ve lazily re-used the key plates from the 1910 edition (but the linked, individual detail plates are from 1924). This was an expedient measure that saved considerable setup time and effort for me; however there are minor differences in the key plates for the 1924 update (e.g. the Waterfront). Should you need to examine the key plates specifically, here are links to the individual sheets for your inspection:

Central city (Volume 1, Plate 1a)
Waterfront (Plate 1b)
West of Dufferin Street, south of Annette Street (Plate 51)
West of Spadina Road, north of Annette Street (Plate 52)
East of Pape Avenue, south of St. Clair Avenue (Plate 101)
East of Bathurst Street, north of St. Clair Avenue (Plate 102)

I also do not have scans of the title pages and do not know if they were meaningfully altered; I refer you instead to the 1910 edition if you want to see them.

The method of ‘sticker’ updates is particularly noticeable comparing the same plates from 1924 to those of 1910.

Images courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto -- Volume 1 Plate 1A
“Central District: Dufferin Street, Pape Avenue, North to St. Clair Avenue.”

Toronto -- Volume 1 Plate 1B
“Water Front and Island.”

Toronto -- Volume 2 Plate 51
“West of Dufferin Street, South of Annette Street.”

Toronto -- Volume 2 Plate 52
“West of Spadina Road North of Annette Street.”

Toronto -- Volume 3 Plate 101
“East of Pape Avenue, South of St. Clair Avenue.”

Toronto -- Volume 3 Plate 102
“East Bathurst Streets, North of St. Clair Avenue.”

And yes, I know 1924 is not in the Victorian era. I originally put this site up with just the years 1884, 1890, 1893, and 1899. Then I kept going...

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1880 Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto

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The Insurance Plan of 1880 provides maps which are even more detailed than those of the Atlases. It is well worth comparing to the Insurance Plan of 1889 to discern how quickly parts of the city can change over a decade.
Images for the 1880 Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto courtesy of City of Toronto Archives.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto Central City

Toronto - West of College Avenue (now known as University) & Plan Showing Building Districts

Regrettably, there do not appear to be scanned images for plates 5 or 54 at this time.

Title Page and General Plan showing Average Pressures (click to expand)

Large views of Index Plates 2 and 3.

Download all images: TBD (zip file, ~N mb)

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

The Great Toronto Fires of 1904—and 1895

2012-10-08T16:10:00.002-04:00

Goad’s Atlases of Toronto were meticulously-detailed, scaled maps for use by insurance underwriters, the real estate industry, and private fire brigades, in the assessment of premiums and fire risk. As it turned out, at least four notable Toronto fires were documented by the Chas. A. Goad Company in map form.

The Great Toronto Fire of 1904

The Great Toronto Fire of 1904 destroyed a massive parcel of downtown Toronto, with damage estimated around $10 million (that’s in 1904 dollars!).
Remarkably, no casualties were reported as a direct result of the conflagration (One labourer, John Croft, was killed during the post-disaster demolition work).

Looking north from the foot of Bay Street. The clock tower of (Old) City Hall can be seen at the view terminus.

Here is the map that Goad produced as a result. An examination of the map reveals the extent of the devastation and the many businesses which were completely destroyed by the conflagration.

Area of fire, wholesale district, Toronto, Canada, Tues. April 19th and Wed. April 20th 1904. Image courtesy City of Toronto Archives

A high quality scan of the above map may be downloaded here. Note the mention (upper right) of “Sheets 5-6-13 & 14” of “Toronto Vol. 1”. This is a reference to the Insurance Plan of Toronto (follow that link to inspect the detailed sheets from the Plan).

Devastation: the view looking west from Yonge St. along Front (centre with tracks). In the distance you can discern the Romanesque 1892 tower addition for the 2nd Union Station.

Amazingly, film footage from the Great Toronto Fire of 1904 and its aftermath survives:

[link]

The above video contains three scenes, each about a minute long:
• Northbound Bay Street - Fire Wagons responding to the alarm.
• Firestorm - Location unknown.
• Demolition of buildings - After the fire.

Bay St. facing South West, as seen from an upper storey in the Telegram building (SE cor. Bay/Melinda). One of the towers of the 2nd Union Station is visible in the background, right.

It took more than a dozen hours for the fire to be declared under control. Many buildings were reduced to mere shells and had to be demolished.

Smoldering ruins of the Wyld-Darling building, South East corner of Bay and Wellington

Stunning Photos of the Aftermath

I’ve put together an annotated gallery of photographs from the Great Fire here. When browsing the gallery, you’ll find it useful to refer to the previously shown map for orientation. The photos give you an idea of the spectacular scope and nature of the disaster.

The Globe and Osgoodby Fires of January 1895

The destruction wrought in 1904 naturally commands the most historical interest. But in 1895, there were three calamitous infernos which merited a map from Goad.

The first two fires occurred mere days and a block apart, on January 6 and January 10, 1895:

Plan of Fires at Toronto: January 6 (red) and January 10 (blue), 1895. Image courtesy Library and Archives Canada

The front page of the Globe breathlessly chronicled the destruction of the first fire (outlined in red above) -- which included the Globe building itself! Previously fierce newspaper rivalries were temporarily set aside in the name of journalism, and the Globe hastily relocated to the presses of the Empire Printing Company, while the offices of the Star, the Mail, the News, and the Telegram were leveraged to get the paper out to print.

The front page of the January 7, 1895 Globe (excerpt). Click to view full-size.

Fire Chief Richard Ardagh -
jumped 40 feet for his life

While battling the blaze, fireman Robert Bowery was killed and several others were injured. Fire Chief Richard Ardagh sustained serious wounds and bruises after jumping 40 feet for his life out of the third floor of the adjoining Brough & Carswell building. He would later perish a scant three weeks later, from pneumonia developed while attempting to recover.

Although the fire took place early in the morning in the midst of a thick snowstorm, nevertheless a crowd of thousands gathered to watch the fire, which spread across the street to the brand new McKinnon building. It took hours before the fire was finally declared under control. Firefighters were notably unable to direct their streams to the top of the Globe building despite their best efforts -- it was too high.

A second blaze - the Osgoodby building
The city had scarcely gathered itself before another major fire took place a few days later, this time immediately west in the Osgoodby building:

'Another Mighty Conflagration' declares the Evening Star, January 11, 1895. 'Was it Arson?'

Two women were forced to jump from the upper stories of the burning Osgoodby building -- both survived. Thousands of onlookers were again witness to a mighty spectacle of smoke and flame. The damage was estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars, prompting a serious and punishing insurance rate hike for businesses in the core. It was speculated that the cause must have been leftover embers from the Globe blaze, though some raised the possibility of arson. This event was deemed Toronto’s most devastating fire until the calamity of 1904.

In the wake of the Globe and Osgoodby fires, steam-powered pumping engines were (re)introduced in Toronto. Fire Chief Ardagh had argued for many years that the existing water supply from hydrants, supplying 80lbs pressure in that area (see Plate 1 of the Insurance Plan), was insufficient to reach beyond the 4th floor of a building. His pleas for steam fire engines went unheeded by city council, until exactly that scenario played out in the Globe fire -- firefighters were unable to direct their water streams to the top floor of the building, a factor in its destruction.

The Simpson-Eaton Fire of March 1895

A third significant fire occurred on the morning of Sunday March 3 1895, at the corner of Yonge and Queen. This disaster consumed most of the rival stores of Robert Simpson and the T. Eaton Co., with damage estimates coming in at close to a million dollars. Here is Goad’s subsequent map of the fire:

Plan of fire at Toronto, Ontario, Can., Sunday morning, March 3d, 1895. Image courtesy Library and Archives Canada

The practically-new, recently-constructed department store of Robert Simpson was obliterated.

SW corner of Queen and Yonge. The Simpson building was completely destroyed.
The damaged spire of Knox Church can be seen at rear. Photo taken March 4, 1895

For comparison: Simpson’s newly built store before the fire of March 3, 1895. Also note steeple atop Knox Church.

The next day, Simpson bravely ran the following ad:

Simpsons advertisement the day after the March 3, 1895 fire

Remarkably, after this catastrophe Simpson was able to construct a new store at that very location, which stands there to this day.

Let’s wind up this look at the Simpson fire with the tale from the Globe of how the spire of the neighboring Knox church burned:

A sketch of Knox Presbyterian Church

... one of the most absorbing features of interest about the fire was the burning of the steeple of Knox Church. The steeple of the old church was destroyed in a manner that kept an immense crowd in a state of excitement for two hours, and made up a scene of wonderful beauty and impressiveness. To see the fire smouldering high up on the steeple during all that time, a fire so small that a pailful of water would have extinguished it, but with no possibility of getting anywhere near it, was painful to the spectators, and must have been exasperating to the brigade...

The terrific heat from the upper storeys of the Simpson building first ignited a small wooden ornament on top of the stone tower of the church, but this was of little consequence, as it was hardly possible for it to ignite anything else. A tiny jet of smoke coming from the small wooden window frames thirty feet higher up, which appeared after 1 o‘clock, was the real source of danger, and some of the officers of the church and insurance men appealed to the firemen to try in some way to extinguish this fire before it should spread.

But the firemen realized how helpless they were in the matter, as they had no appliances at all suitable. Finally at 2 o‘clock a fireman with a Babcock extinguisher made an attempt to ascend the tower on the inside. By this time the fire in the steeple had become brighter, and it was feared that if the fireman could not get up the steeple the whole church was doomed. The crowd watched with intense interest his slow ascent, as shown by the light of the lantern he carried shining through the large front window. When he reached the belfry he endeavored to pass the bell, and in so doing pulled the hammer, the bell giving out three strokes, that sounded weird and pathetic under the circumstances. Then followed a period of suspense while the people strained their eyes to catch the first sight of him at the summit of the tower, but soon the lantern was seen descending again, and it was evident that he had failed and that the tower was doomed.

From this time on the fire very slowly increased, until about 2:45 o‘clock it had blazed out fiercely, looking like an immense torch. The wind sent the flames curling around the steeple, and as the fire spread upwards and downwards great forks of flame stretched out to the east. Then the firemen brought hose to play upon the church as the falling embers were a source of danger to the body of the building. The moment the stream was turned on the crowd set up a cheer with a distinctly derisive note to it...

Thanks for reading!

Additional Resources and Further Reading

The Great Fire of 1904 - Toronto Archives
Historicist: the story of Mr. Croft - Torontoist
The Great Toronto Fire of 1904 - blogTO
Companies and Buildings Affected (1904) - Toronto Archives
The Great Toronto Fire - Archives of Ontario

Their Last Alarm - Robert Kirkpatrick [notes on Chief Ardagh]

Context for this Post

Originally I was planning to do a brief post with just the 3 Goad maps of the fires of 1904 and 1895. I then decided it would benefit from a few supplementary photographs and discussion. This article is thus meant to complement the rest of this site, which provides simple online access to the Atlas of the City of Toronto by the Chas. E. Goad Company.

Atlas Editions available: 1884, 1890, 1893, 1899, 1903, 1910, 1913, 1924.
Bonus Updates: 1880 Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto, 1889 Insurance Plan, The Great Toronto Fires of 1904 -- and 1895
More Maps: Check out Historical Maps of Toronto -- includes the 1858 WS Boulton Atlas and the 1842 Cane Topological Map of the City and Liberties of Toronto

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1910 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

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The 1910 edition came in three volumes, expanding to cover much more of the suburbs than previous editions

This was the third major edition of Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto, and was rather more expansive than previous years -- in keeping with Toronto’s rapid growth. There are roughly double the number of plates!

Images courtesy of the Toronto Public Library.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto -- Volume 1 Plate 1A
“Central District: Dufferin Street, Pape Avenue, North to St. Clair Avenue.”

Toronto -- Volume 1 Plate 1B
“Water Front and Island.”

Toronto -- Volume 2 Plate 51
“West of Dufferin Street, South of Annette Street.”

Toronto -- Volume 2 Plate 52
“West of Huron Street, North of Annette Street.”

Toronto -- Volume 3 Plate 101
“East of Pape Avenue, South of St. Clair Avenue.”

Toronto -- Volume 3 Plate 102
“East of Huron and Bathurst Streets, North of St. Clair Avenue.”

Atlas Title Pages, Description, and Street Index
Click any image to expand...

Title Page, 1910 Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto, Volume One

General Key and Foreword

General Table of Contents and Vol. One Index to Registered Plans

Index to Registered Plans Cont’d

Atlas of the City of Toronto Street Index, Volume 1

Title Page, 1910 Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto, Volume Two

General Key, Index to Registered Plans (Volume Two)

Index to Registered Plans Cont’d; Street Index (Volume Two)

Street Index Cont’d, Volume Two

Title Page, 1910 Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto, Volume Three

General Key, Index to Registered Plans (Volume Three)

Street Index, Volume Three

And yes, I know 1910 is not in the Victorian era.

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1903 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

2012-05-04T02:48:00.002-04:00

Yes, I know that 1903 is technically not in the Victorian Age. I felt like setting it up anyway, as the 1903 revision is not available via the TPL. The 1903 revision is the 1890 edition with several years of revision stickers applied to it. Many maps are quite notable for their layered, pasted-up appearance. Enjoy!

Images for the 1903 Atlas courtesy of Library and Archives Canada.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto -- Central District
“Old City between Dufferin Street and Don, and North to C.P.R. Track”

Toronto -- Western District
“Parkdale (St. Alban’s), Brockton (St. Mark’s), West Toronto, Swansea, Etc.”

Toronto -- Northern District
“N. of C.P.R. Track, Deer Park, Davisville, Eglington (sic), Bracondale, Etc.”

Toronto -- Eastern District
“Riverside (St. Matthew’s), Chester, East Toronto, Norway, Etc.”

Atlas Title Page, Description, and Street Index
Click any image to expand...

Goad Atlas of Toronto 1903 revision
(click to expand)

Introductory Comments -- Note update sticker

Key to Colours and Revisions

Table of Contents and Street Index

Street Index Cont'd

Street Index (III)

Revision slips page

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1889 Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto

2012-05-03T04:55:00.001-04:00

Images courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

The Insurance Plan of 1889 is a more detailed version of Goad’s maps of Toronto -- the scale is larger. I added this plan as a bonus due to overwhelmingly positive feedback on the Atlases. Some uncertainty exists as to exactly what year this Plan is for. At a minimum, this plan is the 1880 Insurance Plan with revisions to 1889. (See the revision sticker on the main key map below). The TPL says that the plan is 'mislabelled as 1892' in their own catalogue (which is ridiculous -- why don’t they update the database records?!). Yet, on the Junction cover page, the revision sticker clearly indicates 1892. I suspect that the main Atlas is revised to 1889, and the Junction section is revised to 1892.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto West Half

Toronto Central

Junction (note 1892 revision sticker!) Also, there does not seem to be a plate for section 1.

General plan showing Average pressures
Click images to expand

Title Page of 1889 Toronto Insurance Plan -- note revision sticker, top right

Plan showing Fire Limits or Building Districts

Plan Key

Index to Insurance Plan

Index to Insurance Plan (cont’d)

Riverside -- Sheet 1...

Riverside - sheet 2 (via LAC - the TPL doesn't have sheet 2 for some reason)

Missing from the above: Sheet 1 of the Junction section. Also, sheet 59 is not a TPL scan; rather, it is a photo I took directly myself in the Baldwin Room at the Toronto Reference Library. Should you manage to extract either of these sheets from the TPL database, or find them elsewhere, please let me know and I’ll gladly set them up.

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1899 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

2012-03-31T00:39:00.001-04:00

Images courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

Click anywhere on the index maps to view the corresponding detail plate

Toronto -- Central District
“Old City between Dufferin Street and Don, and North to C.P.R. Track”

Toronto -- Western District
“Parkdale (St. Alban’s), Brockton (St. Mark’s), West Toronto, Swansea, Etc.”

Toronto -- Northern District
“N. of C.P.R. Track, Deer Park, Davisville, Eglington (sic), Bracondale, Etc.”

Toronto -- Eastern District
“Riverside (St. Matthew’s), Chester, East Toronto, Norway, Etc.”

Atlas Title Page, Description, and Street Index
Click any image to expand...

Goad Atlas of Toronto 1899 Title Page
(click to expand)

Introductory comments

Table of Contents and Street Index

Street Index Cont’d

Street Index Final

Download all images: 1899 (zip file, ~79mb)

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1890 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

2012-03-17T00:00:00.002-04:00

Goad Atlas of Toronto 1890 title page
(click to expand)

Introductory comments

Table of Contents and Street Index

Street Index Cont’d

Street Index Final

Cover

Download all images: 1890 (zip file, ~75mb)

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!

1893 Toronto Fire Insurance Map

2012-03-15T14:52:00.001-04:00

1893 Goads Atlas of the City of Toronto Title Page

Prefatory remarks, Table of Contents and Street Index

Street Index Cont’d

Cover

To find out more about these maps, read: Goad’s Atlas of Toronto: Online!

Please ‘Like’ and share these maps! I hope that other Toronto heritage enthusiasts will find them useful. Have fun exploring Victorian Toronto!