Michael Mastromatteo –
This is the second in a semi-regular series of columns personifying houses in Cabbagetown.
Walls combine two century-old Gerrard Street homes
A recent realty notice advertised the combination of two Cabbagetown houses – 458 and 460 Gerrard Street East – into one king-sized property. The dividing points between the original semi-detached structures, more 140 years old, have been removed to create a wide first-floor living space.
The homes were constructed about 1881, in the typical Cabbagetown narrow, semi-detached peaked style. One of the first owner/occupants of number 458 Gerrard Street East was Mary L. Slatter. A Toronto Daily Star item of March 15, 1895, reported the passing of her husband, Philip Slatter, “the popular city and district passenger agent for the Grand Truck Railway.”
Mrs. Slatter had no immediate neighbours at the time, as municipal records show the adjoining house to be vacant during the last days of the Victorian era.
By the year 1900, number 458 was occupied by “builder” C.K. Rogers. His next-door neighbour at 460 was Richard S. Purcell, proprietor of the Bryce Lumber Company on King Street East. Did a builder living cheek by jowl with a lumber supplier team up in old Toronto’s early 1900s house building boom?
By 1915, number 458 again sat vacant, while the house to the immediate east was occupied by Joseph Foster. A short parade of owners lived at 458 Gerrard until the home was taken over by Jessie Savage, an England-born mother of three sons, two of whom served with the Canadian Armed Forces in the Second World War.
Canada’s 1931 census shows the following information about the Savage household: “Jessie Savage, homemaker, rent $30 per month; sons Albert 23, Douglas 21, William 17.” The census also noted that the Savage household had at least one radio set.
Jessie and her sons and/or grandsons owned the house until at least 1975. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. An April 10, 1935, article in the Toronto Daily Star, under the subhead “Mother Accuses Son,” reported that Jessie Savage testified against her 25-year-old son Douglas for theft of household items. Other newspapers reported similar charges against the troubled Douglas Savage.
But by the mid-1940s, perhaps things changed. The January 18, 1944, issue of the Star reported:
“I am certainly glad that the authorities try to relieve our anxieties as soon as they can,” said Mrs. Jessie Savage, Gerrard St. East, mother of Sapper Douglas Savage, RCE. A telegram announcing the fact that he [Douglas] was wounded in Italy Dec. 8 (1943) was closely followed by another stating that “the wounds were not serious.” The article continues: “Enlisting shortly after the war broke out, Sapper Savage has been overseas about four years in the First Field Company, RCE.”
The house next door at 460 Gerrard apparently escaped such domestic turbulence. It went through a series of owner/occupants from the mid 1920s to the 1950s.
In 1925, number 460 was rented out to “stableman” Charles F. Freeman, who worked for the Acme Farmers Dairy immediately south of the Casa Loma area, when milk and other staples were delivered by horse and buggy. Freeman’s housemate was carpenter James Rochester.
By 1945, no. 460 was shared by Edward Fairbank, a technician at Dominion Wheel and Foundry, and Henry S. Marcotte, a painter and decorator. Five years later, 460 was home to at least three adults: Mr. Fairbank, Dollar Carpet Cleaning employee Stanley Evans, and Joseph Hutchinson of Rodwell Plumbing.
The names Maurice Breen, Norma Johnston, John Stewart and Joseph T. Contour appear as owners or occupants of number 460 from 1955 to 1975.
Now the old walls at 458-460 Gerrard St. E. have been repositioned to create just one Cabbagetown house.
