It started out as a pandemic project to keep Paul Wilker occupied, making sure that he did his part to help preserve a little local history. But a little more than a year after launching the website Streets of Stratford, he’s seen it grow beyond what he imagined.
“I had my mother’s scrap books that had Stan Dingman’s old stories in there about the various streets in town,” Wilker said. “It just grew out of that with a lot of input from some great local historians.”
It’s grown to the point where it has over 20,000 users and registered 230,000 clicks. And yes, the bulk of those visitors and clicks have been local (approximately 7,500 as of this writing), but Toronto residents are closing in on 3,000 visits, while London is tracking in on 1,000. There have been visitors from around the globe - Ireland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and New Zealand just to name a few. Needless to say, this kind of reception caught Wilker by surprise.
“I was shocked to see those numbers in just 14 months,” he said. “I think that indicates a very high interest in the city and its history. And the stories on there have a range, which makes it a little unique for a history website I think. I believe that’s what gives it some appeal.”
Wilker credits the Stratford-Perth Archives as being a huge resource for their work, as well as his site co-creator Gord Conroy. Other notable local historians like Dean Robinson, Betty Jo Belton, Nancy Musselman and Stratford District Historical Society have helped contribute to the site’s uniqueness and rich storytelling. And while the site has become a bit of a monster in Wilker’s words, he’s looking to the future and what that holds for telling stories of the past.
“I’d really like to have a succession plan in place for someone to come in and continue to grow Streets of Stratford after we step away,” he said. “It would be good to have someone come in and be able to interface with the community. We’ve asked the historical society if they want to take it over and they’re still mulling the possibility, but they’re not sure they have the manpower to do it.”
That’s not to say Wilker and the others are looking to leave any time soon. In fact, they’re wanting to get the word out about the site even more than it already is.
“I’d like to see citizens understand what an incredible city it is they live in,” he said. “It really has quite an amazing history.”
