The PARK LOT PROJECT started in 2011 as a small personal project — a study of the Toronto park lot locations and their original patent holders — and grew from there.
BUY ME A COFFEE?
or
pay my parking at the archives?
$3.50/hour - $15 maximum a day while doing research at the Archives of Ontario (York U campus).
It really adds up!
Every dollar helps.
The button above will take you to PayPal's secure payment site — however, a PayPal account is not needed for this payment method. PayPal also accepts transfers via credit card, bank account, etc.
Other donation options include bank account transfers (via email).
I would also be pleased to accept a good old-fashioned cheque.
Each supporter will be enthusiastically thanked on the PARK LOT PROJECT web site. And, with your permission, on twitter.
(Please let me know if you prefer not to be identified as a donor.)
My pledge: Every dollar you donate will go towards covering project expenses, e.g. photocopying and related research costs; data storage / internet / programming / and related computer costs; related travel costs (especially the $15 parking fee paid every day I spend reading microfilm at the Ontario Archives); and keeping the lights on here at park lot project central.
(PayPal takes a fee of approx. 4% so that's our only fund-raising expense.)
I added the waterways and shoreline to provide a sense of the original marshy landscape, and drew in the Mississauga Indian Toronto Purchase of 1805 to press the point that these lands were occupied before Europeans ever arrived. Then I got interested in the original recipients of the Town of York town lot grants, their connection to Lt.-Governor John Graves Simcoe, their place in broader Upper Canadian society... Well, you can see what happened.
Eventually I realized that what I was creating was an interactive encyclopedia of the earliest days of the Town of York and Upper Canada.
That's much bigger and grander than I imagined when I started, but I have found the project fascinating, rewarding, and well worth pushing on.
It's not my intention to make a profit out of this. I am making the project public under a Creative Commons (Canada) licence, which means you are welcome to copy material as long as you properly respect my copyright and credit the project.
I can see it being useful to young students, historians, geographers, and every Torontonian who ever wondered what was here before their home was built.
The Toronto Park Lot Project, as originally conceived, was completed in 2013. The newest layer, exploring the larger Upper Canadian canvas, was developed in 2014. But the truth is that the map will likely never be completely finished. Like the internet itself, the project evolves.
As I do research for my book on Peter Russell (provincial administrator 1796-99, after the departure of Simcoe) I uncover ever more and more details on grantees, the lots' subsequent histories, background on the settlement of Upper Canada, etc. These details of course get added to the map as I find time to do so.
After many months devoted to the project I've realized I need help getting it done.
Any offers to contribute content would be most gratefully received.
Your financial contribution to support the project will be most gratefully received.
Want to donate in someone else's name? Just let me know.
Receipts will be sent if requested, but the PARK LOT PROJECT does not have charitable status.
Inquiries:
parklotproject[at]
wendysmithtoronto[dot]com
Thank you!
Wendy Smith
researcher/writer/webmaster
The TORONTO PARK LOT PROJECT — an exploration of the earliest days of the TOWN OF YORK, founded in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.