Christopher Plummer, the Academy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning actor, rented an apartment in Stratford at the start of his career. Now, visitors can explore the streets where famous actors like Plummer and William Shatner lived while building their careers on stage in the Festival City.
A new interactive website, streetsofstratford.ca, features over 650 stories about people and properties linked to the streets. Visitors can click on a street name and learn about its history, including how it got its name and the famous actors who lived there. The site also includes categories, flashbacks, videos, maps, and puzzles, making it engaging for multiple generations.
In a little less than a month since its launch, the site has received over 50,000 clicks. The project is the brainchild of Paul Wilker, who enlisted the help of friends and local historians to compile the stories. The site is not just a vanity project but a labor of love for Stratford's history, with plans to feature weekly highlights of historical events from the town's past.
Video summary
Stratford's new interactive website, Streets of Stratford, has gained a lot of attention as visitors can now check out the history behind many of their streets and the famous actors and other notable residents who have lived on them. The idea for the website came from Paul Wilker, who grew up in Stratford and wanted a place to house local history from his hometown. Since enlisting the help from local friends and organizations like, the website has over 650 stories that correlate to one of the streets in Stratford.
It took Wilker about two years to compile all the stories and organize them. Wilker plans to continue tweaking the website and adding interesting stories and tidbits about Stratford life in hopes of attracting new viewers. In addition to the once-a-week historical feature, Wilker plans to cover topics such as sports, politicians, and major events that have happened in Stratford.
Wilker's idea of putting an old map together onto a website and boosting it up with interesting stories behind the street names is gaining lots of traction with around 50,000 clicks so far. He wants to keep the interest going by using social media and featuring a local historical story every week that redirects back to the website. With its many interesting stories and tidbits about Stratford life, Streets of Stratford is a roadmap that hopes to continue attracting visitors and locals alike.
