Much of a city’s history can be told through the buildings that stand within it. Edmontonians can now explore the architectural archaeology of their own backyard with a beautiful new map: the City of Edmonton Building Age Map.

The Albertan city joins a growing list of metropolises that are mapping the age of their buildings. However, Edmonton’s version includes a handy feature that shows the city’s (infamously sprawling) growth over time.

At the top of the map colour-coded buttons represent seven different time periods, from pre-1913 to present day. Clicking each will show the buildings constructed during that block of time. Explore further by typing an address into the search bar or manually zooming into the map.

Edmonton was declared a city in 1904. Its greatest period of expansion occurred during the post-war years (1946-1970), when the advent of assistance programs for returning vets and the discovery of oil caused the city to quickly expand nearly 50 sq. kilometres.

While not every civic address is available on the map (unavailable data displays as “0”), the map shows a wide array of addresses compiled over a hundred years.

The map was made by two Edmonton-based companies: Edmonton Home Tribe, a tech-savvy real estate company that uses data to match homebuyers with prospective properties, and BetaCityYEG, an urban tech meetup that uses technology – and the various skill sets of analysts, programmers and geospatial experts – to tackle civic issues.