Imagine a Toronto where the tallest building is only three stories high, where Lake Ontario reaches Front Street, where the wagon wheels grind through the muddy roads, the air smells of smoke and animal, and the surrounding lands is farms, fields, and forests. This was what the neighbourhood looked like in the early 1800s.

In this virtual tour, explore the surviving built environment of the original 10 blocks of Toronto and discover how the Town of York, which started as a colonial outpost with a couple hundred residents, became the City of Toronto in 1834, with a population of just under 10,000.

Explore the Town of York in 1833 by clicking on each marker in the map below: