Historical Vernon City Directories Mapped

This initiative aims to provide scholars, researchers, and the public with a visual directory, index, and account of Kitchener's residential, business and industrial development. This Historical GIS project takes decades of digitized Vernon city directories (years 1901+), cleanses, collates and geo-locates over a million searchable individual entries using a map platform. Users can filter, view and download historical facts about Kitchener's residents and businesses, offering endless discovery and research opportunities. 

Access to the webmap is available from ArcGIS Online's GeoHub. Access to the geocoded files (.csv tabular data) are available below, as well as all business advertisements, grouped together by year.  A list of all discovered and verified street name and street number changes have been ​​compiled for more accurate analysis. Additionally, several sample maps of the historical dataset have been created to demonstrate research potential. 

To map the data yourself, simply go to https://www.google.ca/maps/about/mymaps, and use the Import function to display the Excel files in map format.

Download Vernon City Directory Resources for the years 1901-2000
YEAR BUSINESS FILES ADVERTISEMENT IMAGES RESIDENTIAL FILES
1901-1903 1901-1903 Businesses 1901-1903 Images 1901-1903 Residential
1907 1907 Businesses 1907 Images 1907 Residential
1908-1909 1908-1909 Businesses 1908-1909 Images 1908-1909 Residential
1910-1911 1910-1911 Businesses 1910-1911 Images 1910-1911 Residential
1911-1912 1911-1912 Businesses 1911-1912 Images 1911-1912 Residential
1919 1919 Businesses 1919 Images 1919 Residential
1920 1920 Businesses 1920 Images 1920 Residential
1921 1921 Businesses 1921 Images 1921 Residential
1922-1923 1922-1923 Businesses 1922-1923 Images 1922-1923 Residential ​​​​​​
1924-1925 1924-1925 Businesses 1924-1925 Images 1924-1925 Residential
1926-1927 1926-1927 Businesses 1926-1927 Images 1926-1927 Residential
1928-1929 1928-1929 Businesses 1928-1929 Images 1928-1929 Residential
1929 1929 Businesses 1929 Images 1929 Residential
1930 1930 Businesses 1930 Images 1930 Residential
1932 1932 Businesses 1932 Images 1932 Residential
1934 1934 Businesses 1934 Images 1934 Residential
1936 1936 Businesses 1936 Images 1936 Residential
1938 1938 Businesses 1938 Images 1938 Residential
1940 1940 Businesses 1940 Images 1940 Residential
1942 1942 Businesses 1942 Images 1942 Residential
1945 1945 Businesses 1945 Images 1945 Residential
1946 1946 Businesses 1946 Images Pending
1948 1948 Businesses 1948 Images Pending
1950 1950 Businesses 1950 Images Pending
1952 1952 Businesses 1952 Images  
1954 1954 Businesses 1954 Images  
1956 1956 Businesses 1956 Images  
1958 1958 Images 1958 Images  
1960 1960 Businesses 1960 Images  
1962 1962 Businesses 1962 Images  
1964 1964 Businesses 1964 Images  
1966 1966 Businesses 1966 Images  
1969 1969 Businesses 1969 Images  
1970 1970 Businesses    
1982 1982 Businesses    
1984 1984 Businesses    
1986 1986 Businesses    
1988 1988 Businesses    
1990 1990 Businesses    
1992 1992 Businesses    
1994 1994 Businesses    
1998 1998 Businesses    
2000 2000 Businesses    

For user convenience most abbreviations for occupations have been expanded, however for entries where they were not, please refer to the Occupation and Name Abbreviation Lists.

The Kitchener Public Library has the City Directories available for viewing in scanned pdf format. 

Themed analysis using historical GIS data:

Kitchener Street Name Changes

Residences of Kitchener Soldiers - WWI and WWII

Business Growth Heat Map

Prominent Businesses and their Employees 

First Eateries of Berlin/Kitchener

The Development of Chain Restaurants

Remembering Long Gone Restaurants

Forgotten Neighbourhood of Kitchener

Remembering the Past: Homes That Once Were

Advertisements in Research and Images Collages: 1910-1930  and 1940-1960

Sweet Shops & Bakeries

Grocery and Tobacco Shops

Banks and Employees

Businesses on King: History of Business Tenants 1901-2023 & Streetview Compilation King Street E/W (Even &  Odd) & Business Chronology

1901 Businesses in Kitchener

Early Occupations in Kitchener

Funding and Acknowledgement: 

This project has been funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, as well as the University of Waterloo Library. We would like to acknowledge support from Karen Ball-Pyatt, from the Kitchener Public Library as well as Darryl Bonk, from Waterloo Region Generations who have generously provided us with scanned versions of the city directories. 

This project was created by staff at the UW Geospatial Centre with assistance from numerous individuals across several library departments. Special appreciation and recognition go to dozens of co-op students and part-time student workers who transcribed, geocoded and helped develop the final web maps.