Modest Hopes: Worker's Cottages of Toronto

by Don Loucks, Leslie Valpy

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

216 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2020

Reviews

[Virginia Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating book celebrates the row houses, semis, and cottages that reflected the modest hopes of early Toronto immigrants to move from crowded boarding houses or shared accommodation to a self-contained 600 sq ft home of their own. The book looks at the history of the design of many of these homes which came from the British reform movement that advocated to improve workers housing. It talks about the areas of Toronto where the homes proliferated - the War, Cabbagetown, Corktown etc. - and biographies of some of the immigrants who lived in these homes. It finished by emphasizing the need to preserve these small houses as a vital part of Toronto's history. A must read for anyone interested in Toronto's history.

[Bonnie Hyderman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing historical review. I really enjoyed this book.

[Ron Grimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good history of Toronto focusing on 1820 to 1920.