Annexation 1910

The annexation by the City of Toronto of McRoberts Avenue was for health reasons. According to Nancy Byers and Barbara Myrvold’s award-winning St. Clair West in Pictures (Toronto Public Library, 3rd ed, 2008) concern for sanitation and the spread of disease in other outlying neighbourhoods pushed the city to act. Bracondale, Wychwood, and West Toronto were all annexed in 1909. This made a weird dip in the city map, with Earlscourt stuck between two parts of Toronto. In January 1910, the gap was filled and Earlscourt and Dovercourt became part of the city, officially named “North Dovercourt Annex”.

The area with the yellow border shows the extent of the North Dovercourt annexation in 1910. The northern city limits cut through Prospect Cemetery, just above Innes Avenue. Map from City of Toronto Archives.

On McRoberts Avenue, the new city limits cut the street in two. From St. Clair West to just North of Innes Avenue the residents lived in Toronto but beyond that, the street was part of York. As a result, services, infrastructure and taxation rates were quite different. Overall, Byers and Myrvold say, the acquisition of Earlscourt wasn’t that exciting for the City of Toronto. It had a population of only 5,000 people and “it had never been incorporated, and had minimal police and fire protection, and only a few street lights, sidewalks, paved streets, and houses with indoor toilets and running water.”

With all the improvements to be made, the fear of rising taxes was a big issue for the residents. The area was well organized and had an active ratepayers group. They had requested annexation, but only “on the condition that the City guarantee a five-year fixed assessment on unimproved properties which remained in the hands of the original owners.” The city government agreed. Byers and Myrvold cite Joseph Thorne’s experience as a resident of McRoberts Avenue after annexation. His taxes were $2.90 in 1910, and went up by 5 cents the year after.

Although Byers and Myrvold say that the area was sparsely populated, the residents of McRoberts Avenue had been making steady progress with their building efforts. Charles Goad’s 1910 Atlas of the City of Toronto shows many buildings – almost all wooden structures (any brick buildings are coloured red) – lining the street in 1910.

Charles Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto for 1910 shows that many properties on McRoberts were developed with wooden structures at the time of Annexation. The street was well located for workers at the brickyards, stockyards and factories to the West as well as the Canada Foundry to the south. Map from the Toronto Public Library.

Might’s Directory was typically concise and businesslike about the event: “North Dovercourt and Earlscourt which have just been annexed to the City will be found in the suburban part of the directory, as the order of annexation was issued too late to admit of their being included in our city canvass.” The suburban index reads: “Prospect Park (see Earlscourt)”.

I’ve transcribed all the listings from Might’s Directory that I found on McRoberts that year. By cross referencing with the 1911 Census of Canada, the majority of these households stayed put on the street through the first year of Annexation. Demographically, the neighbourhood was very homogeneous. A typical household was single-family – usually a British-born, married couple in their thirties, with three or more children – who had arrived in Canada in 1905 or 1906. All residents identified a religion, typically Anglican, Methodist or Presbyterian. The main employers for the area were the Canada Foundry (at Lansdowne and Davenport), house builders, the brickyards (in Carlton Village), the CCM Bicycle factory, and the Stockyards. Three people also worked for the cemetery in 1911.

Here is the 1910 residents list from Might’s Directory, showing if they lived on the east side (“e s”) or west side (“w s”) of the street. The letter “l” means they are not the head of the house, but live in that house. Where addresses are given, I am fairly confident that they are referencing lot numbers and not street addresses. Links are added to the names if I’ve mentioned them in another post. Also, most jobs are abbreviated in the directory:

• Blksmth – Blacksmith
• Blrmkr – Boilermaker
• Brklyr – Bricklayer
• Brkmkr – Brickmaker
• Clk – Clerk
• Carp – Carpenter
• Lab – Labourer
• Mach – Machinist
• Mldr – Moulder [a foundry job]
• Messr – Messenger
• Pdlr – Peddlar
• Stone ctr – Stone cutter
• Tmstr – Teamster

Earlscourt (Three and a half miles northwest of PO)

Abbott Wm (Bennet & Abbott), h w s McRobert av

Bates Joseph lab, h e s McRobert av

Beardwood Wilfred lab, h e s McRobert av

Bennett George (Bennett & Wood), h w s McRobert av

Bennett & Abbot (George Bennett, Wm Abbott) coal, w s McRobert av

Buckley John lab, h w s McRobert av

Carpenter John lab, h 22 McRobert av

Cartelage Norman mach, h e s McRobert av

Chapman Sydney foreman Prospect Cemetery, h e s McRobert av

Chown Rev Edwin A Prospect Park Methodist Church res Toronto

Cooper Joseph pdlr, h e s McRobert av

Corish Frederick lab, h e s McRobert av

Dayes John wheelwright, h e s McRobert av

Drury Henry mldr, h 2 McRobert av

Foster Alfred E carp, h w s McRobert av

Foxall George mach, h e s McRobert av

Hains Wm lab, h w s McRobert av

Gray Stephen lab, h e s McRobert av

Haslem Clarence messr, l Frederick Haslem

Haslem Frederick lab, h w s McRobert av

Hayball Herbert driver, h e s McRobert av

Hill Harry dairy, e s McRobert av, h same

Hitchman John tinner, h w s McRobert av

Holden Albert lab, h e s McRobert av

Howey Wm C painter, h e s McRobert av

Huggetts George painter, h w s McRobert av

James Alfred E locksmith, l WA James

James Frederick I tmstr, l WA James

James Wm A bldr, h e s McRobert av

Laird Alfred mach, h e s McRobert av

Matthews Sydney tinner, h e s McRobert av

Maxted Richard lab, h 16 McRobert av

Maxsted Thomas brkmkr, l 10 McRobert av

Maxted Wm brkmkr, h 18 McRobert av

Miller Alfred E mach, h e s McRobert av

Muir John woodwkr, h e s McRobert av

O’Neill James C brklyr, h 24 McRobert av

Osborn Edwin carp, h e s McRobert av

Pigott Philip H lab, h e s McRobert av

Prospect Park Methodist Church Rev Edwin A Chown pastor w s McRobert av

Ripley Thomas mach, h e s McRobert av

Saunders Alfred lab, h e s McRobert av

Savage Charles mach, h e s McRobert av

Savage Sina (wid Henry), h 6 McRobert av

Sier Percy F mach, h e s McRobert av

Smith Wm lab, h e s McRobert av

Stallan Ernest G lab, h w s McRobert av

Stephenson Wm lab, h e s McRobert av

Stone Wm lab, h 11 McRobert av

Thompson James blrmkr, h 23 McRobert av

Thompson Richard, butcher, h w s McRobert av

Thorne Joseph lab, h 17 McRobert av

Troyer Michael lab, h e s McRobert av

Tunner Edward stone ctr, h w s McRobert av

Vanderburgh John carp, h 10 McRobert av

Vanderburgh Raymond shipper, h 12 McRobert av

Vanderburgh Richard, blksmth, l 10 McRobert av

Wall Samuel shipper, h w s McRobert av

Welden Henry lab, h e s McRobert av

Yule Robert engineer, h e s McRobert av

Yule Robert jr, clk, l Robert Yule

151 McRoberts Avenue

This is part 2 of the story of the Del Piero family, covering the years they lived on McRoberts Avenue. Part 1 can be found here.

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When Giacomo Del Piero left Hamilton, Ontario, for Italy in 1930, he was working as a tile setter. In Hamilton, he was also listed as a “terracer”. This skilled work, creating terrazzo floors, tiling, and creating mosaics, was taken up by many northern Italians. A collection of essays, The Friulian Language: Identity, Migration, Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2014 ed. Rose Mucignat) notes famous examples around the world. Closest to home, this work includes the rotunda ceiling at the Royal Ontario Museum created in 1933, and the Thomas Foster Memorial Temple in Uxbridge. University of Toronto Professor Olga Zorzi Pugliese has catalogued so many of these beautiful installations, from public buildings to private homes, and researched the Canadian companies and some of the craftsmen who created them.

The fact that Giacomo Del Piero went to Hamilton to work must had something to do with his connection to his cousin Aurelio, who ran a steamship ticket agency and shop on James Street North. Aurelio Del Piero was well established in Hamilton. He had been in Canada since 1906 and was one of the founders in the 1920s of the Hamilton branch of the Sons of Italy, a benevolent society still active today.

However, when Giacomo came back, alone, from his trip to Italy he didn’t stay in Hamilton. Instead he moved to Toronto, finding a home on Laughton Avenue, south of St. Clair Avenue West. There are a number of Italian households listed in the area west of Caledonia Road in the Might’s Directories of the early 1930s, many of them working in tiling, marble work and terrazzo flooring. Nearby, at 60 Caledonia Road, was the headquarters of one of the city’s leading firms for this type of work: Italian Mosaic and Marble Company of Canada Limited.

A few months after Giacomo’s return, on May 1, 1931, 37-year-old Anna Redivo sailed from Genoa to New York City also aboard the Roma. With her on the passenger list were her three children: Maria Del Piero age 11, Argentino Del Piero age 8 and Alfio Del Piero age 3. The children were all born in Roveredo, but Anna herself was born in Bahia Blanca, Argentina. The Canadian passenger list notes that she is going to join her husband at 125 Laughton Avenue. On May 12, 1931 the family crossed the border into Canada for the first time.

Look familiar? This is the what the Del Piero’s neighbourhood was like when they first moved to Toronto in 1931. Courtesy City of Toronto Archives.

The first few years of the family’s life in Canada were spent on Laughton Avenue. In the 1932 Might’s Directory, Giacomo Del Piero is listed with the first name John, living at 236 Laughton and working as a mechanic at “Italian Mosaic.” This could be one of two companies operating at the time and it is just a guess to know which “Italian Mosaic” employed Giacomo Del Piero, but given the location I’d be willing to bet it was at Egidio DeSpirt’s company on Caledonia.

My best guess is that Giacomo Del Piero’s employer was Italian Mosaic & Marble Company Limited at 60 Caledonia Road. The company was the Toronto branch of a family business still operating in Buffalo, NY today.

Research done by Olga Zorzi Pugliese and Angelo Principe for their article, “The Mosaic Workers of the Thomas Foster Memorial in Uxbridge”  contains details of DeSpirt’s company, which was responsible for work in many significant buildings such as the mosaic floors in the Toronto Old City Hall, the King Edward Hotel, and the provincial Parliament building.

In 1935, the Del Piero family was listed at 151 McRoberts Avenue, formerly the home of S. Clifford Olmstead, manager of one of the gas stations in the Perfection Service Station chain. In this edition of the directory, Giacomo – now regularly listed as John (just as Egidio DeSpirt went by “Giles”) – is described as a Stone Masher. The next year, he is a stone mason, the trade he will keep for the rest of his time on McRoberts. It is interesting that this period of transition coincides with the contract that Italian Mosaic and Marble Company had won to complete the elaborate marble work in the Thomas Foster Memorial (their competitors, the other “Italian Mosaic”, did the murals).

Another interesting note from this time is that in the federal government’s Annual Report of the Labour Organizations in Canada in 1936, the President-Secretary of the Bricklayers, Masons and Plasterers’ International Union No 16 (Terrazzo Mechanics) was “A. Redivo” at 151 McRoberts Avenue. Later, editions of the Report show “A. Redivo” of the same address in the Secretary role for the Local. Might’s Directory does not list anybody named Redivo in this time period, on McRoberts or elsewhere. It would need more research, but since married women were not usually listed in Might’s Directory unless they were widows, it is possible that Anna Redivo was the labour leader listed in the government directory.

The turbulent politics of the time must have enveloped the Del Piero household. Just considering a few possibilities is anxiety-producing. There were the government’s anti-Communist actions against labour unions, Italian fascist activities in Canada as well as anti-fascist activities by many labour organizations and within the Italian community itself. In addition, there was systemic racism against Italians. Living on a very British street like McRoberts where the local members of the British Imperial Association were regularly reported in the newspapers claiming problems caused by “foreigners” for just about any situation, must have had some dark days.

In Hamilton, Aurelio Del Piero had become involved with the Italian fascist movement and had loaned money for the construction of the Casa D’Italia, which housed fascist organization offices as well as providing space for the Sons of Italy (which was not outlawed as a fascist organization by the Canadian government) and other cultural groups. Research by the Columbus Centre on the arrests of Canadians during World War II includes the imprisonment of Aurelio Del Piero from 1940 to 1941.

In Toronto, the family continued through the war years in their home on McRoberts. In 1938, Maria Del Piero, now 19 years old and known as Mary, had started working for a men’s clothing company at 142 Front Street West called Cook’s Clothing. Warren K. Cook, the owner, was apparently supportive of the labour movement and garment worker’s rights and Mary Del Piero continued to work for his company throughout the war, progressing steadily in her career. Giacomo Del Piero continued to be listed as a Stone Mason.

Argentino and then Alfie came of age just as the Del Piero family decided to leave McRoberts. In 1947, they all moved to Vaughan Road in Fairbank. 1948 is the first year that a new company is listed in Might’s Directory: Del Piero and Son, Contractors. Mary had also risen to the job of Examiner at Cook Clothing. The new residents of 151 McRoberts were another building contractor, Gordon W. Kritzer and his wife, as well as his wife’s sister and her husband, Rev. Charles S. Laidman, a Congregational minister from Binbrook, who had come back to Canada after serving at the historic church in Chicago’s posh Oak Park suburb.

151 McRoberts Avenue

This is Part 1 of the information I can find of the earliest Italian residents I’ve identified on McRoberts Avenue [January 2019 note: The Castruccis are now the earliest]. This covers the arrival in Canada of Giacomo Del Piero, who was later joined by his wife Anna Redivo and their children. They moved to McRoberts in 1935, but this part of the story goes back before that. Part 2 can be found here.

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In the 1935 Might’s Directory for Toronto, the name of the first Italian resident of McRoberts Avenue appears.  His name is Giacomo Del Piero and he, along with his wife Anna Redivo and their children, lived at 151 McRoberts. From what I can find, Giacomo Del Piero’s trip to McRoberts was a long and difficult one, and I’m not sure it would have been easier once he was settled here.

This 1921 photograph is reproduced in the San Bartolomeo parish magazine from Roveredo. Giacomo Del Piero is first from the right, in the second row from the top. The magazine article identifies every single person in the band.

Giacomo Del Piero came from Roveredo in Piano, a town in the Udine region of northern Italy. He was 36 when he arrived in Halifax from Bordeaux on May 30, 1927, aboard an aging French-owned ship, La Bourdonnais. The Canadian Immigration Service Return shows he was travelling with 46 other men from Udine – almost all of them leaving wives and children in Italy – who had come to settle in Manitoba under the auspices of the Alonsa Italian Colony Limited.

Twenty settlers had first joined the Alonsa colony in the spring of 1926, according to an article published January 21, 1928 in the Winnipeg Tribune. Giacomo Del Piero was in the second wave of 50 men, joining what the newspaper described as a flourishing and promising community at Alonsa, much like its sister venture at Lorette, Manitoba.

“From Verdant Hills of Piedmont to Manitoba Grain Fields” is the headline of this 1928 feature article from the Winnipeg Tribune. The white house is one of the settler farmhouses at Alonsa, while the large dark building is the house in St. Boniface where the Alonsa and Lorette Italian colonists would stay when they first arrived in Manitoba.

It was a hard-working life for the Italian colonists, the Tribune said, but the men were up for it. They were making progress on the land and could soon become Manitoba landowners in their own right, if they chose to do so.

The article described the settlement scheme: “The basis of the colony is a contract between the individual settler and the society. Under its terms the settler makes a cash deposit before leaving Italy, and agrees to work for the society for 12 months at a standard wage, board and lodging being supplied by the society.

“At the end of the year, the settler has the option of leaving the colony, in which case his original cash deposit will be refunded. Or he may ask to be assigned one or more farms to cultivate them and eventually become the owner. In this case the original cash deposit is applied toward the down payment on the farm, the basis of the new management being the familiar “half crop payment” plan which is in general use throughout Western Canada.”

In Manitoba, the men planted grain and other crops in the summer, worked in the bush cutting wood in the winter, kept dairy cows (the sister settlement at Lorette produced cheese), and performed building jobs on the settlement and for hire by neighbours.

Unless he cashed out as soon as his 12 months was up, Giacomo Del Piero may never have seen his cash deposit again. By 1929, the Alonsa company was bankrupt. The settlers were left stranded in Manitoba with IOUs for wages, and nothing more. The situation prompted the provincial government to get involved and a special license was given to allow the wine produced by the settlement to be sold. However, the venture was soon accused of manufacturing additional wine for sale from imported grape juice concentrate, and the Winnipeg Tribune noted that proceeds were apparently still not flowing to the settlers who had lost so much. The chair of the provincial government committee that was formed to look into the matter stated in March 1930, “Many of these immigrants appear to have lost practically everything.”

It was all gone – the hundreds of cords of wood they had chopped, the acres they had cleared, the barns they had built. By then, the Depression Dust Bowl drought had started and unemployment was rising. Under very difficult circumstances, Giacomo Del Piero moved East.

The clue to where he was living is a 1930 border crossing card into the US on September 4, 1930. Giacomo Del Piero told the customs official he was living in Hamilton, employed as a tile worker. His departure contact was his cousin in Hamilton, Aurelio Del Piero, who was at 253 James Street North. (Click here for a great Flickr album of James St. N.)

Giacomo had $100 with him and a steamship ticket for the Roma, a much newer and nicer ship than the French boat he had travelled on to Canada. The card notes that Giacomo Del Piero’s time in the U.S. would be very brief. He was headed home to his wife, Anna Redivo and his family in Roveredo.

Part 2 coming soon…

67 McRoberts Avenue

The first residents of 67 McRoberts appear to be William Stone, his wife Charlotte and their young daughter Ida. In the 1911 Census, William and Charlotte are both in their late 20s and he is working 55 hours a week for $400 a year, as a labourer in a furniture factory. The census notes that he had been unemployed for 12 weeks that year. Ida was just 2 years old.

Number 67 sits on one half of lot 15. Its attached neighbour, 65 McRoberts, was built decades after the first families of McRoberts had started erecting their wood frame cabins and sheds in the Earlscourt “shacktown”.

Hunting through Ontario marriage records shows that on October 30, 1907 William John Stone, age 26, born in England to Henry Stone and Ellen Lyford, married Lottie Wall, age 22, daughter of William Wall and Mary Ann Ball. Lottie, who was also born in England, is listed as a resident of “Erlscourt”, like her new husband.

Like many of their McRoberts neighbours, they had arrived from England in the early 1900s: William came in 1905 and Lottie in 1906, according to the 1911 Census. It seems most likely that they met and became engaged here. They were married at Wychwood Methodist by Rev. G.W. Dewey.  J.T. and Lily Greensides of Wychwood were the witnesses. It is not clear what church served as “Wychwood Methodist.” It is possible the record is referring to Zion Methodist Church which stood on St. Clair West at Rushton.

At least two children were born to William and Lottie at 67 McRoberts. The Ontario birth record for Ida Lillian Stone doesn’t even give a street address. Ida was born on Lot 11, McRoberts Avenue on April 11, 1909. Her father is listed as a labourer and her mother as a wash-woman. When I imagine Lottie washing clothes in muddy Earlscourt, pregnant and no doubt freezing cold through the Canadian winter, I am extra grateful for my cozy laundry room.

This 1911 William James photograph shows the view north from Rochdale Avenue, on the other side of Prospect Cemetery (on the left) from McRoberts Avenue. Harvie Avenue is on the left and Nairn Avenue is on the right. Rowntree Creek runs through the centre of photograph. Courtesy City of Toronto Archives.

It appears that Lottie was no longer washing for a living in 1913 when Violet Marian Stone was born on January 2, 1913. Dr. A.J. McNamara was listed as the physician – he had also attended Lottie when Ida was born and he frequently appears on McRoberts Avenue birth certificates. That year, in the Toronto directory for 1913, a new profession is given for William Stone – he is a butcher. No employer is given, but he could have been working at the stockyards west of Keele.

Soon after this, the Stone Family’s time on McRoberts seems to have come to an end. Number 67 has new occupants and the Stones are not easily found in the 1921 Census, nor are the family members buried in Prospect Cemetery like so many of their neighbours. Hopefully for them McRoberts was a rung up the ladder in their new Canadian lives.

Update: The Stones did not leave McRoberts under happy circumstances, as I had hoped. More on their story can be found here.

On the street where we live

In 1867, newlyweds Thomas and Jane Gilbert purchased the York County farm where McRoberts Avenue would eventually be surveyed. They worked the farm for twenty years, had thirteen children and retired in 1887 to a stunning landmark estate in the West Toronto Junction.

A map showing Thomas and Jane Gilbert’s farm, from the 1884 Goad’s Atlas, courtesy Toronto Public Library. Mr. Shield’s farm, to the east, would soon become Prospect Cemetery.

Graeme Mercer Adam in his 1891 history Toronto, Old and New: A Memorial Volume, Historical, Descriptive and Pictorial, noted the redevelopment of the old Gilbert farm: “The rapid growth of Toronto has made this property very valuable for building purposes.”

Lot 33, 3^rd concession was subdivided by a group of investors and put on the market as Prospect Park in about 1889. Located west of Prospect Cemetery, it was bordered by St. Clair West to the south, Summit Avenue to the north, and Campbell Avenue (just west of the Grand Trunk Railway Tracks) to the west. Prospect Avenue, now Caledonia Road, was laid out as a wide thoroughfare, with McRoberts running parallel as far as Summit, its east side lots backing on to the newly created cemetery.

The subdivision was well outside the city limits at that time, and would not be annexed by Toronto until 1910. However, its promoters, led by Hoover and Jackson of West Toronto Junction, highlighted Prospect Park’s virtues in an advertisement reproduced in the Toronto Public Library’s St. Clair West in Pictures (by Nancy Byers and Barbara Myrvold):

HEALTHY HOMES FOR ALL

Conveniently Situated

RAPID TRANSIT

This property is without doubt the finest and most desirable now on the market overlooking and commanding most SUPERB views of WEST TORONTO JUNCTION, LAKE ONTARIO and the CITY OF TORONTO.

Only 5 to 10 minutes walk from the four RAILWAY STATIONS and all the Factories

RAPID TRANSIT to and from Toronto. 25 TRAINS EACH WAY PER DAY

FARES TO TORONTO AND RETURN, only THREE CENTS each way

PROPOSED BELT LINE runs through the property

STREETS GRADED and SIDEWALKS ALREADY LAID

PRICES WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL

$25 cash down, balance in monthly installments

No matter how ideal these lots were though, the Toronto Fire Insurance Maps and Goad’s Atlas show the properties as generally undeveloped. It was not until the 1910 edition of Goad’s Atlas that many lots show modest wooden structures for the first time.

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” Carter G Woodson