How Toronto got a little less puritanical

This article, on housing for single women at the turn of the century, is a fascinating little snapshot of local history. I'd actually heard about that through himy, who did a Jane's Walk that stopped at one of the first apartment buildings in Toronto that would rent to women.

In the early 1900s, women from rural and small-town Ontario flooded to Toronto for work. This drove the market for apartment construction, as several single women together could afford to live in an apartment—much to the chagrin of Proper Torontonians. In 1912, the government passed a law, if you can believe it, against the construction of apartment buildings in residential areas. This obviously didn't last. Apartments became a concrete representation of women's increasing independence.

Anyway, very interesting reading. Check it out.

How Toronto got a little less puritanical

This article, on housing for single women at the turn of the century, is a fascinating little snapshot of local history. I'd actually heard about that through himy, who did a Jane's Walk that stopped at one of the first apartment buildings in Toronto that would rent to women.

In the early 1900s, women from rural and small-town Ontario flooded to Toronto for work. This drove the market for apartment construction, as several single women together could afford to live in an apartment—much to the chagrin of Proper Torontonians. In 1912, the government passed a law, if you can believe it, against the construction of apartment buildings in residential areas. This obviously didn't last. Apartments became a concrete representation of women's increasing independence.

Anyway, very interesting reading. Check it out.