There's a stretch of King street that I've been going past every day for about fifteen years now. Fifteen years is not really very long in the life of a city - but now it's hard to remember what it looked like then. There were large empty buildings that had been the Massey Ferguson plant in Toronto. There were large brick buildings - some modern some ancient. There was a vast - and quite elegant - plate glass showroom. A few years later, nearly everything was pulled down. New roads were put in, lampposts were put up. Big signs proclaiming a three million square foot Olympia & York office development were erected in the late eighties. And then nothing happened… The signs stayed up for a couple of years, faded and eventually fell over in the mud. Chain link fences blocked off the new un-traveled new roads.
And then, about five years ago - something changed again. Hoardings were put up, deep holes were dug and construction cranes moved in. New buildings went up. No office buildings this time - it was all condos. Today, most of these buildings look like they've been there for ever. It's hard to imagine the street ever having looked different. The last remaining land is quickly being filled in.
There are very few traces of what is left - the Massey office building is a notable exception. All of this history is almost completely erased. Which is really a huge loss. Of course, we need the new housing and the factories were not viable - but it is a shame that history can so quickly disappear.
If you are interested in history there are some interesting sources. At the Toronto Reference Library there are two great resources. One is in the Baldwin Room - a collection of photographs. The other is the collection of Goad maps. Both of these rare rich sources of information. Neither of them were intended to be the valuable historical records that they are today.
In the Baldwin room there is an index of photographs sorted by street addresses for most of 19th century Toronto. These were compiled by a news paper as they documented locations in the city for various newspaper stories. Chances are you can find your street and see what it looked over 100 years ago.
Goad maps were prepared in the insurance industry. Their purpose was for insurers to assess the risk of the properties that they insured. They needed information on not only their clients, but their neighbours and their business activities. How likely was fire or accidents. How far away from each other was each establishment that was being insured? The maps show detailed information about each building, the tenant and business activity. Every lumber yard and coal pile. These were utilitarian drawings - the authors did not intend them to be the incredible historical records that they are now.
It is interesting to think about what may become the historical documentation of our time. In our economy we generate and enormous amount of data - but how much would be of interest to future generations? It's hard to tell, but most of it probably won't be that interesting. Documentation about buildings, were they were and how they were used will probably be quite interesting. Our drawings, designs and data are likely to have historical value, even as for the Goad maps, the authors aren't intending it.
If we can develop an extensive database of information including drawings, 3d models and usage information - this may well be something of historical value. Maps and photographs printed on paper can survive a very long time if preserved carefully. They do not need any infrastructure other than storage to survive. Will our information survive as easily? It requires media for storage (which degrades) it must be backed up and cared for. Will future generations have the tools to read it even if it survives?
Are there things we can do to preserve this potentially valuable information?
