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Contents Fire insurance atlases and maps Fire insurance atlases and maps Fire insurance plans are detailed large-scale maps of cities, smaller municipalities, and industrial sites. These plans were prepared for and leased to insurance companies, who needed to know building sizes and construction materials, in order to determine the fire risk and therefore be able to quote insurance premiums to customers. Plans were updated frequently as buildings were burned, torn down, rebuilt, or new areas were developed. When minor corrections were necessary, revisions were printed and distributed to the agents to paste over outdated sections of the maps. This sometimes resulted in multiple layers and plans with the same date having different revisions. New editions were only published periodically, when major changes took place. Agents were required to return the outdated plans to the mapping company, in order to receive revised plans. These returned plans were always destroyed. Today, researchers find fire insurance plans an invaluable information source, using them for a variety of purposes, including to:
Coverage of Toronto and its communities and neighbourhoods The forerunner of fire insurance mapping of Toronto was the 1858 Boulton atlas. At one inch to 100 feet it was the largest scale map of Toronto produced to that date and the first to show construction material of buildings. Charles E. Goad (1848-1910), who initiated fire insurance mapping in Canada in 1875, produced his first Insurance plan of the city of Toronto between 1880 and 1892. It consisted of one volume of large sheet maps at the scale of one inch to 50 feet (relative scale 1:600). Plans measured 54 x 64 cm, or 21 x 25 inches. Generally only developed areas (usually those within the city proper) were included. Maps of outlying areas were not produced unless they were built up. Thus, separate plans for Toronto Junction, Weston, and Yorkville were prepared. Commercial buildings were also sometimes given separate plans, the John Inglis Company (1918), for example. Beginning in 1910, the expansion of Toronto led to the production of multiple volumes of plans, with each volume covering a different part of the city. Volume 1, for example, was for Toronto's central area. The amount of detail varied from building to building; it was usually intense in the city core and for major buildings, while buildings further from the city centre, when represented at all, were shown only by outline and type of structure. Revisions to these "area" volumes were frequent from the turn of the century to the 1940s in response to changing development and growth in Toronto. (See Key plan no. 1) In 1917, Goad's sons sold the business to the Canadian Fire Underwriters Association, who published plans under the imprint of Underwriters' Survey Bureau Limited. In 1965, the USB became the Plan Division of the Canadian Underwriters' Association. The final Insurance Plan of the city of Toronto was produced between 1954 and 1973. (See Key Plan No. 2). At one inch to 100 feet and measuring 30 x 33 cm, or 13 x 13 inches, it was smaller in scale than earlier plans and kept in binders. In 1974, the Insurers' Advisory Organization took over production of Canadian plans, but in 1975, ceased production of fire insurance plans due to escalating cost. Layout of fire insurance plans was similar, whether in large or small format. Each set began with a title, dates and imprint, followed by the "Key Plan" and an index of street names. Various symbols and colours were used to indicate the following characteristics: - the shape and size of a building Holdings at Toronto Public Library Toronto Reference Library. Special Collections Genealogy & Map Centre Toronto Plans 1858 Boulton's Atlas of Toronto. (W. S. And H. C. Boulton) Specialty plans 1904 Area of fire, wholesale district, Toronto, Canada, Tu. Apr. 19th and Wed. Apr. 20th (Chas. E. Goad) Published plans Goad, Charles E. The mapping of Victorian Toronto: the 1884 and 1890 atlas of Toronto in comparative rendition. Sutton West, Ont.: Paget Press, 1984. North York Central Library - Canadiana Dept. Toronto Plans 1884 Atlas of the city of Toronto and suburbs. (Chas. E. Goad). 1st edition Specialty plans 1904 Area of fire, wholesale district, Toronto, Canada, Tu. Apr. 19th and Wed. Apr. 20th (Chas. E. Goad) The Map Collection in the Toronto Reference Library's Special Collections Genealogy & Map Centre includes photostats of maps and plans of Toronto, 1788 - current, arranged by decade. North York Central Library - Canadiana Department also holds many maps in its collections. The following maps are especially useful for local property searches. Tremaine's map of the County of York Canada West (1860) This map identifies "names of owners and/or tenants, houses of subscribers and names of estates." It uses small black squares to indicate structures such as residences, inns, schools, churches, and factories. Some drawings of houses and other buildings border the map. There is also a list of the names, professions and residences of subscribers to the map. (George Tremaine compiled maps of most of the counties of southern Ontario in the 1850s and 1860s.) Miles & Co., 1878. Reprinted, Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1969. This atlas includes individual maps of several townships that are now part of Toronto - Etobicoke, Scarborough, York (with enlarged maps of the south-west and south-east parts) - as well as plans of the city of Toronto, and the towns and villages of Weston and Yorkville. Each township map clearly marks lot and concession numbers, and gives the name of the owner of each separate parcel of land. Churches, schools and "all manufactories of note" are also indicated. Atlases were originally sold by subscription. Some prominent county residents paid an additional sum to have biographical sketches, portraits, and views of their residences or businesses included in the atlases. (In total, 32 illustrated historical atlases were prepared for 40 Ontario counties in the 1870s and 1880s.)
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