Modest Hopes : Homes and Stories of Toronto's Workers from the 1820s to the 1920s
Loucks, Don2021
Books
"Modest hopes" are the houses that were home to the people who built Toronto. These small homes found in rows, semis, or the rare detached, still exist throughout the older neighbourhoods of Toronto, yet they are an under-valued and endangered heritage resource. Celebrating Toronto's built heritage of row houses, semis, and cottages and the people who lived in them.Despite their value as urban property, Toronto's workers' cottages are often characterized as being small, cramped, poorly built, and in need of modernization or even demolition. But for the workers and their families who originally lived in them from the 1820s to the 1920s, these houses were far from modest. Many had been driven off their ancestral farms or had left the crowded conditions of tenements in their home cities abroad. Once in Toronto, many lived in unsanitary conditions in makeshift shantytowns or cramped shared houses in downtown neighbourhoods such as The Ward. To then move to a self-contained cottage or rowhouse was the result of an unimaginably strong hope for the future and a commitment to family life. Through the stories of eight families who lived in these "Modest Hopes," authors Don Loucks and Leslie Valpy bring an important but forgotten part of the Toronto narrative to life. They illuminate the development of Toronto's working-class neighbourhoods, such as Leslieville, Corktown, and others, and explain the designs and architectural antecedents of these undervalued heritage properties.
Main title:
Modest Hopes : Homes and Stories of Toronto's Workers from the 1820s to the 1920s / Don Loucks, Leslie Valpy.
Author:
Loucks, Don, authorValpy, Leslie, author
Imprint:
Toronto : Dundurn Press, 2021.
Collation:
288 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 22 cm
Contents:
Authors' NoteIntroduction: Home Is Where the Heart Is1. Origins: The History and Antecedents of Workers' Housing Movements2. The Architecture: Five Model Hope House Types3. The Newcomers: Early Immigrants to Toronto Who Built and Lived in Modest Hopes4. Toronto: 1820*#8211;19205. The Neighbourhoods: A Selection of Historic Toronto Areas Where Modest Hopes Were Concentrated6. The Stories: Portraits fo the People and Their Modest Hope Homes-- Bridget Ann Tracey McTagueMurray BuchmanSam Ching and Dennis ChowWilliam Joseph O'ConnorThomas T. FergusonAnne O'RourkeThe Moore FamilyAlbert Jackson-- Conclusion: Why Are Modest Hopes Important Today?AcknowledgementsNotesBibliographyImage CreditsIndex
ISBN:
9781459745544
Dewey class:
971 LOU
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2306362
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