A laneway house that mimics traditional suburban housing

Let’s look back at the North American dream of home ownership. Specifically, that of veterans returning home – to a housing shortage – in the immediate years following the Second World War.

Entire neighbourhoods, such as “The Wishbone” in North York, “Sunshine Valley” in East York (now known as Topham Park), and the Queensway Park area of Etobicoke, were built by Wartime Housing Ltd. to make that dream possible. But walk the streets of those neighbourhoods – Warvet Crescent, Uno Drive, or Hearst Circle – and today’s eyes likely see comically small saltbox homes on postage-stamp-sized lots. But, in 1945, as The Globe and Mail reported, a house with “four rooms, a roomy basement with hot-air furnace” and “built-in cupboards and sink in the kitchen” was a “dream come true” for prisoner of war camp survivor Robert Luxmore and his family.