Historic Places Canada 2

The Open Source Rescue of Canada's Digital Heritage.

In 2026, Parks Canada announced the shutdown of HistoricPlaces.ca, putting an invaluable database of over 11,000 historic sites at risk of disappearing. Historic Places Canada 2 is the community response: a modern, open-source platform built to rescue, preserve, and revitalize this irreplaceable cultural knowledge for future generations.

We rebuilt the entire experience from the ground up to be faster, more beautiful, and easier to explore.

🍁 What is this?

This is a full-stack preservation platform that serves:

1. A Modern Web Application: A lightning-fast, responsive SPA (Single Page Application) that makes exploring history a premium experience.
2. A Public API: A robust backend that powers the site and provides access to the data for educational and research use by researchers and developers.
3. The Complete Dataset: We've cleaned and indexed the original data, including descriptions, architectural details, and over 22,000+ images.

Explore the Live Site

✨ Features

We've implemented features that modern users expect:

• 🔍 Advanced Search: Filter 11,000+ places by Architect, Year of Construction, Theme, Municipality, and more. No more clunky government forms.
• 🗺️ Interactive Map: visualize historic sites across all 13 provinces and territories on a performant, clustering map.
• 🗣️ Fully Bilingual: Native support for English and French, just like the original, but faster.
• 📱 Mobile First: A responsive design that looks great on your phone, tablet, or desktop.
• 🔓 Open Data: The entire database is available for download for educational and research use. Attribution to the Canadian Register of Historic Places is required; commercial use is not permitted.

🛠️ Tech Stack

Built on the Edge for speed and reliability:

• Frontend: React + Vite (Static SPA)
• Backend: Cloudflare Workers (Edge API)
• Database: Cloudflare D1 (SQLite at the Edge)
• Storage: Cloudflare R2 (Images)
• Language: TypeScript throughout

🚀 Running Locally

Want to help improve the site? Here is how to get the full stack running on your machine:

1. Clone the Repo

   git clone https://github.com/gorskiz/historic-canada-api.git
   cd historic-canada-api

2. Install Dependencies

   npm install

3. Start Development Server

   npm run dev

   This command starts the Cloudflare Worker emulator (Wrangler) which serves both the API and the React frontend.

   • Web App: http://localhost:8787
   • API: http://localhost:8787/api/*

🤝 Contributing

This is a community-led project. We need your help to keep it alive and growing.

• Developers: We need help with Map UI improvements, search optimizations, and accessibility fixes.
• Designers: Help us make the history look as good as it sounds.
• Data Sleuths: Found a duplicate? A missing image? Let us know.

How to contribute:

1. Check the Issues tab for tasks.
2. Fork the repo and create your branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature).
3. Submit a Pull Request.

📜 License

Code

The code in this repository is released under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, and distribute.

Data

The data in this repository — including the downloadable database and all records served by the API — originates from the Canadian Register of Historic Places, maintained by the Government of Canada.

Use of this data is subject to the following conditions:

1. Educational and Research Use Only. You may use the data solely for educational, academic, journalistic, or non-commercial research purposes.
2. No Commercial Use. You may not use the data, or any work derived from the data, for any commercial purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to selling, advertising, or monetising access to the data in any form.
3. Attribution Required. Any use of the data must include clear attribution to the Canadian Register of Historic Places as the original source.

The underlying data was originally made available by the Government of Canada under the Open Government Licence - Canada, which is more permissive than the terms above. The restrictions listed here apply to the data as curated and presented in this project.

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Preserving the past, building for the future.