Bicentennial Commemoration of the War of 1812
Legacy Attractions
Revitalization of Fort York National Historic Site
Fort York's defensive walls continue to enclose Canada's largest collection of original 1812-era buildings. Fort York is being revitalized to reflect its importance as a national historic site and to provide park space for the communities of more than 20,000 residents that are rapidly emerging around it. Two of its largest redevelopment projects are slated to be completed during the War of 1812 bicentennial. A new visitor centre designed by Patkau Architects, Inc. (Vancouver) and Kearns Mancini Architects, Inc. (Toronto), will introduce and orient visitors to the different features of the national historic site. It will provide exhibition space for unique artifacts, now in storage, from Toronto's early history, as well as changing exhibit space and hospitality facilities. The revitalization of Fort York through the building of the Visitor Centre is an opportunity not only to restore links to urban Toronto's founding story and Canada's military past but also to renew the public's understanding of who Torontonians are and why they've settled here. For more information visit Fort York National Historic Site.
Additional development projects for Fort York National Historic Site include improvements to the seven-acre existing museum, the adjacent Garrison Common, the Strachan Avenue cemetery, and Victoria Memorial Square (Portland and Wellington Streets).
Toronto in Time
Ever wanted to travel back in time?
The Toronto in Time app turns your smartphone into a time machine.The free software application - designed to be compatible with Android, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (and developed by The City of Toronto Museums, Heritage Toronto and the Historica-Dominion Institute) - lets you explore the past in all sorts of ways.
Featuring over 150 stories alongside
then-and-now photos, slideshows, maps and more, the Toronto in Time app makes it possible to see the city's history all around you.
In 1913, what is now Nathan Phillips Square was part of The Ward, then known as one of Toronto's poorest areas.
Hear the story of the club that has hosted the Rolling Stones, U2 and Marilyn Monroe, discover where soldiers of the War of 1812 lie buried, stand on the site of a 17th-century First Nations village, and much more! Meet a cast of characters including inventors, musicians, entrepreneurs, bank robbers, artists, visionaries and dreamers that make up the rich portrait of Toronto's history.
The app is also designed to work as a personal tour guide to help you discover the past in your own backyard or neighbourhood as well as other parts of the city, including downtown and the Toronto Islands. It also recommends a host of walking or biking trails that take you back in time.
To start digging up the past, visit the App Store or Google Play to download the free app. Toronto in Time is also viewable online.
Museum Services forges unprecedented partnership with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation
Museum Services, in partnership with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, has created a new travelling exhibition, Outcome of the War of 1812: First Nations Betrayed, which will launch on June 22, 2013 at the official opening for the New Credit Community Centre.
The exhibition focuses on the long-term consequences of the War of 1812 for the First Nations through the experience of the Mississaugas of the New Credit, who have a historic and meaningful connection to the land and waters of the Toronto area. Their ancestors were allied with the British and fought in the War of 1812. Almost 200 years later in 2010, they concluded a fair and just settlement of the Toronto Purchase Specific Claim.
In the aftermath of this historic settlement, the exhibition addresses in three languages the following questions:
How will they ever know about us?;
How will they recognize whose land they're on?;
and How will they know us as we live today.
In Toronto, those questions will be answered in the permanent First Nations display in the new Fort York Visitor Centre, which will open in Fall 2014. Learn more about First Nations and the War of 1812.