Maps and Atlases: Fire Insurance Plans

Fire insurance plans are a good tool for historical researchers who are interested in city planning and building locations.  What is interesting is that these fire insurance plans were originally produced by fire insurance companies to assess insurance risk and rates for fire, an ever-present threat to early Canadian urban centres, consisting largely of wooden dwellings.  A good introduction to the history and content of these plans is found in the Catalogue of Canadian Fire Insurance Plans, 1875-1975, located in the Map Collection reference stacks. This catalogue also identifies all the fire insurance plans published in Canada from 1875 to 1975 and records their location. Fire insurance plan collections can also be found at the Ontario Archives, the City of Toronto Archives, University of Toronto Libraries, and the Toronto Reference Library. The York University Map Collection has facsimiled plans for the downtown core of the City for the following years: 1858, 1884, 1889, 1923 and 1954.

The fire insurance plans ceased in 1975.  Property data maps or cadastral maps have taken the place of fire insurance plans.

A helpful overview of fire insurance plans can be found from the University of Toronto: A Primer on Goad's Atlases and Fire Insurance Plans for Toronto.

There are several libraries and archives in Southern Ontario that have Fire Insurance Plans. 

• Toronto Public Library

  • Toronto Fire Insurance Atlases and Plans  

  • Toronto Public Libraries print collection 

• City of Toronto Archives 

  • Fire Insurance Plans – Scanned Collection [1880 to 1924] 

  • Fire Insurance Plans Collection – Print and Microfilm, contact archives directly for access 

• University of Toronto​​​​​​​

  • Toronto Fire Insurance Plans (Scanned) 

  • Toronto Fire Insurance Atlases 

  • Complete Listing of Fire Insurance Plans at UofToronto Libraries 

• Western University​​​​​​​. Fire Insurance Plan Holdings 

• Library Archives Canada . Holdings 

• McMaster University Libraries. Holdings 

York University Libraries has a small collection of Fire Insurance Plans and Fire Insurance Atlases. Below is the inventory of our collection:

York University Libraries has a small collection of fire insurance plans of areas outside of Toronto. These plans are only available in print format. 

At the Map Collection:

1. In order to find a Fire Insurance Plan Map you must have a general idea about the area you want, preferably street intersection as this is how the maps and indexes are designed.
2. Once you have a general area location, choose the year you want to look at. Many people find it interesting to look at the Fire Insurance Plans from oldest to newest as they are able to see the progression or changes that have occurred to the same area over time.
3. Once you have selected your area and year locate your series index. For Example, if you want to find Queen Street and Spadina Avenue for the 1899 series look at that index as it corresponds to both your desired area and year. Remember the indexes for each year are in that year's drawer (in Map Cabinet #70), or can be found at the beginning of the bound volume of the Fire Insurance Plan.
4. When you have found your desired area on the index take note of the square in which in falls into. This will become your sheet number. Sometimes your area may fall on more than one square, and in this case you will take note of all the sheet numbers that your area falls in. Together all these separate sheets will form your desired area.
5. After you found your sheet number, you are able to find it either in the by browsing through the corresponding map series or within the bound fire insurance plan.

At the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections:

Most of the fire insurance plans we have at York University Libraries are housed at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. Consult the inventory list and the indexes. Use the corresponding index to determine which plan you need. To access the fire insurance plans, please contact the Archives and Special Collections to book an appointment.