Self-Building and the Social Geography of Toronto, 1901-1913: A Challenge for Urban Theory

Abstract

Little is known about housing market processes and residential patterns in North American cities, 1900-1940. The experience of Toronto, Ontario contradicts the prevailing assumption that in this period suburbs were middle class and that low income households occupied older housing that had filtered down. In Toronto, rapid growth after 1900 created a pattern in 1913 whereby workers were concentrated in the old city core and in a new suburban ring. Filtering was of limited extent. Encouraged by extensive land subdivision and the absence of building regulation, workers' families built their own homes beyond city limits. The residential and tenurial instability of these unplanned suburban districts point to future problems. Toronto's experience was typical of Canadian cities west of Quebec, of US cities in the western and midwestern states, and of cities in Australia and Argentina. It challenges us to be more flexible in the way we conceptualize the housing market under capitalism and to be more specific about the contexts within which particular theories are valid.