The City of Calgary teamed up with Heritage Calgary to create the new and improved version of the city’s heritage map, which launched on Jan. 17.
This tool, called the Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources, provides information of more than 800 historic sites in Calgary and is a combination of the previously available Heritage Inventory and the Discover Historic Calgary map.
Josh Traptow, the CEO of Heritage Calgary, said that this inventory is one of Calgary’s worst-kept secrets.
“Oftentimes, people say Calgary doesn’t have any history because it’s such a young city, but we do have a significant number of heritage sites in our city and we need to celebrate them,” Traptow said.
This interactive map is mobile-friendly, includes improved search and download capabilities, has aerial photos of different time-periods to see the changes over time, as well as visual accessibility for people with colour-blindness, according to The City of Calgary’s press release.
“It was an easy decision for the team to make it as accessible as possible,” Traptow said.
Harry Sanders, an Alberta-based historian and freelance writer, said this is a useful tool for people who work in history and heritage, as well as the general public, because information is readily available.
“People can quickly and easily get an interesting narrative about a place and a sophisticated visual appreciation of it through archival photographs and this mapping feature,” Sanders said.
Sanders said this resource is valuable to people who want to learn about their home, campus, work, or a certain building.
“There’s a past to all of that. This tool can make it meaningful,” Sanders said. “People don’t know how fascinating history is.”
Many listings on this map-based resource have a Statement of Significance, which provides a description of the resource, its heritage value, dates of significance, character defining elements, and additional heritage value information, according to the press release.
“It’s a treasure trove of information in our city,” Traptow said.
It was an easy decision for the team to make it as accessible as possible. – Josh Traptow
The Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources was improved because of a city-wide digital infrastructure project.
“It was just a natural opportunity to upgrade,” Traptow said.
This resource can be found on both The City of Calgary website and the Heritage Calgary website.
