Toronto's interwar housing projects

[Archivist]

In a discussion recently with someone quite knowledgeable about Toronto buildings, it came out that although he was aware of one of Toronto's early social housing projects, in Riverdale, he was unaware that there was a similar one in Rosedale. So I've decided to do a small photo montage of three reasonably well known housing projects, obviously quite similar. All three are in great shape today, are healthy community, and are listed on the Inventory so their future seems secure. The buldings from the teens (all of Riverdale Courts and the first building of Spruce Court) were designed by Eden Smith; later building at Spruce Court were designed were by Mathers and Haldenby. Ancroft Place was Shepard & Calvin.

1913 and 1926: Spruce Courts (Cabbagetown)
The original building of this complex was built in 1913 (the first social housing project in Canada, according to East/West), and others followed over a decade later.

1914: Riverdale Courts (Riverdale)
This is by far the largest of the three complexes. The many buildings comprising the courts are charmingly named: Aberdeens, Lindens, Elms, Maples, Cedars. The complex is known now as the Bain Co-op.

1927: Ancroft Place (Rosedale)
This complex has only three buildings, and is in a rather unobvious place, but equals the charm of the other two.

 

[allabootmatt]

Very cool; these are intriguing little breaks in the city's Victorian fabric. I am familiar, more or less, with all three of these. They are very Londonish, in a Belsize Park sort of way...

Are there any other similar examples in TO?

 

[waterloowarrior]

Cool stuff Archivist. I'm not very knowledgeable about about Toronto's housing stock, so this might be an obvious question:

Does Toronto have a lot of CMHC post wwII housing similar to this... and where can it be found?

http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/VeteransGreen/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=1348

 

[Archivist]

waterloo, how very funny that you should ask that question. I grew up in exactly those war-time houses, just off Carling Avenue in Ottawa. My dad, who came to Canada from Poland after the war, was the second owner of the house when he bought it around 1951. We grew up with six kids in one!

What's odder is that just yesterday I was cycling in Etobicoke and came across a neighbourhood of almost entirely those houses - so close a resemblance to my old neighbourhood in Ottawa that I experienced a kind of disconnect, everything in my senses told me that I was in Ottawa. Of course, those houses (which were once featured on a postage stamp) exist in every Canadian city - I was once a guest in one of them in Whitehorse.

What I found interesting in the Etobicoke examples was that many of the units still had the original siding (I have no idea what it is called). In Ottawa, I think there's only a single house that has the original siding, but many of them in Etobicoke did, which I found quite fascinating.

The area where I located a great den of them was just NW of the Queensway and Royal York Road, on some charmingly meandering streets like Smith Crescent and Cochrane Drive. I'm certain there are other enclaves in the city, but this was the largest and most National-Capital-Like that I had ever experienced.

 

[adma]

That's Avon Park at Royal York + Queensway. And there are two others in the 416, recognizable from the map through their street patterns: Topham Park on the north side of St Clair btw/O'Connor and Vic Park, and (I think it might be called) Harding Park on the north side of Trethewey t/w Jane.

Re the Bain Co-Op/Riverdale Courts: I believe parts of that also date from the 1920s, too...

 

[Towered]

The area where I located a great den of them was just NW of the Queensway and Royal York Road, on some charmingly meandering streets like Smith Crescent and Cochrane Drive. I'm certain there are other enclaves in the city, but this was the largest and most National-Capital-Like that I had ever experienced.

Fascinating! I often travel through that area but have never bothered to explore it because I just assumed that there was nothing worth seeing.

 

[Mustapha]

I wonder why these buildings are in so much better condition than the Regent Park housing put up in the late 40s a few blocks to the south?

 

[Archivist]

Mustapha: it's certainly an interesting question. I believe that all three are currently co-ops, which have a high degree of autonomy and a built-in method for dealing with problems that arise. Co-ops, as they are organized in Ontario, are a very sensible way to house people of differing incomes. They are, essentially, tried and true.

In many ways, I have always found it amusing that architects think they can design buildings that change the world. If you look at the basic orientation of these buildings - set back from streets, on courtyards, they aren't so terribly different than, say, Regent Park or Alexandra Park. In fact, the addresses of those in the Bain Co-ops are terribly complex (32 Aberdeens, for instance, so presumably the full address would be something on Bain Street with 32 Aberdeens added on) - complexity in finding units has often been cited as an example of why Regent Park or Alexandra Park failed (how do you order a pizza?).

Of course, even my response (they are co-ops) is somewhat wrong, since they certainly wouldn't have been created as co-ops. Even Alexandra Park has been turned into a co-op in recent years, and I'm not sure if changing the form of organization is helping them. Could it be the scale of the development? Alexandra Park and Regent Park are much larger than these developments.

In any case, given that Alexandra Park twice won awards from a group of elites who thought they knew what was good and right, it's always best for those in the business to have some hubris. Which architects generally lack.

 

[Mustapha]

Cool stuff Archivist. I'm not very knowledgeable about about Toronto's housing stock, so this might be an obvious question:

Does Toronto have a lot of CMHC post wwII housing similar to this... and where can it be found?

http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/VeteransGreen/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=1348

There are many houses like this at the corner of Wilson and Weston road. Hard to believe that they would situate veterans so far from the downtown. I assume these houses were free or subsidized. Couldn't have been much privacy in those houses; although I am certain it taught patience and forbearance. lol, a friend's wife has a 'gift wrapping' room in their very large home.

Mustapha: it's certainly an interesting question. I believe that all three are currently co-ops, which have a high degree of autonomy and a built-in method for dealing with problems that arise. Co-ops, as they are organized in Ontario, are a very sensible way to house people of differing incomes. They are, essentially, tried and true.

In many ways, I have always found it amusing that architects think they can design buildings that change the world. If you look at the basic orientation of these buildings - set back from streets, on courtyards, they aren't so terribly different than, say, Regent Park or Alexandra Park. In fact, the addresses of those in the Bain Co-ops are terribly complex (32 Aberdeens, for instance, so presumably the full address would be something on Bain Street with 32 Aberdeens added on) - complexity in finding units has often been cited as an example of why Regent Park or Alexandra Park failed (how do you order a pizza?).

Of course, even my response (they are co-ops) is somewhat wrong, since they certainly wouldn't have been created as co-ops. Even Alexandra Park has been turned into a co-op in recent years, and I'm not sure if changing the form of organization is helping them. Could it be the scale of the development? Alexandra Park and Regent Park are much larger than these developments.

In any case, given that Alexandra Park twice won awards from a group of elites who thought they knew what was good and right, it's always best for those in the business to have some hubris. Which architects generally lack.

Thanks Archivist. I've walked by these buildings; never taken the time to think about them..

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

There is also a cluster of them in Malton, around Derry & Airport I seem to think. I find it amusing that no matter what later modifications people try, (porches, rear additions, etc.) you can still spot them from a mile off.

 

[Archivist]

To be fair, though, I should point out that there are small variations. In the house I grew up in, for instance, the kitchen and bathroom occupied one side of the main floor, the living room and bedroom the other.

When all six kids moved out, my parent's turned their bedroom into a dining room, open to the living room. When they got older, it became a bedroom again.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Thanks for this thread - especially the images of the Rosedale group.

These buildings remind me so much of the places where some of my relatives lived in north London ( Winchmore Hill ), which I visited as a small child in the late '50s and early 60s. Also, other English public housing ( in Buckingham, Bucks ) where my great-grandparents lived in the '20s and '30s. Solid, sturdy, sprawling, built to last.

 

[maestro]

Does Toronto have a lot of CMHC post wwII housing similar to this... and where can it be found?

You can find them scattered everywhere. They tend to have a brick facade which I haven't seen too often elsewhere in Canada.

 

[adma]

When it comes to Wilson/Weston Rd situations, we're dealing more with the CMHC-approved postwar diaspora of the "wartime housing" idea--this time, with the Cape Cod bungalows rendered in sturdy brick (or, on occasion, tilt-slab concrete), and the planning less compact and more conventionally suburban than in Avon/Topham/Harding Park. Loads of them were built in the 1945-55 period--our very own Levittowns, recognizable to this day. (East central Scarborough is a veritable orgy of such housing.)

 

[maestro]

These buildings remind me so much of the places where some of my relatives lived in north London ( Winchmore Hill ), which I visited as a small child in the late '50s and early 60s. Also, other English public housing ( in Buckingham, Bucks ) where my great-grandparents lived in the '20s and '30s. Solid, sturdy, sprawling, built to last.

built to last unless someone three storeys down fall asleep with a fag in hand