HomeMy WebLinkAbout300"Wartime homes link to important part of nation’s heritage
Article copied from the News Advertiser, Sunday, September 12, 1992, page 11, written by
Judith Goulin.
The following is one of a series of Living History articles by the Ajax Local Architectural
Conservation Advisory Committee
AJAX - In the 1940s a unique phenomenon in housing occurred in Canada.
During the Second World War there was an immediate need for low-rental houses for employees
of defence-related industries, and subsequently for returning war veterans.
To expedite this need, the federal government established a crown corporation called War Time
Housing Ltd., to oversee the construction of small, prefabricated houses. These dwellings,
which came to be known as wartime or victory housing, appeared on the streets of nearly every
major community in Canada where there were military-related activities.
The roots of the Town of Ajax were put down in 1939 when the government expropriated farm l
and in what was then rural Pickering Township to establish Defense Industries Ltd., the largest
munitions plant in the British Commonwealth. When thousands of people came to DIL to work,
residences for men and women were built accommodate them.
These however did not suit the needs of families, so War Time Housing Ltd. undertook the task
of providing individual homes. In 1942 an area on the west side of Harwood Ave. between
Brock and York Streets was set up as a construction yard for wartime houses.
Here local carpenters nailed together panels which were used to form floors, walls, partitions,
ceilings and roofs. The prefabricated panels were then trucked to the house sites to be
assembled on the waiting foundations which consisted of cedar posts sunk in the ground and
covered by laminated beams set on top as a platform for the floor panels.
Thus, the first 600 wartime houses intended as temporary shelter appeared very quickly on
125 acres of former farm land north of Hwy. 401. Workers rented them for $32 a month.
The July 20, 1942 edition of The Commando, the official voice of Defense Industries Ltd.,
reported that ""The first wartime houses are now occupied.""
Stylistically, wartime or victory houses are reminiscent of Cape Cod Colonial dwellings.
Victory homes were designed to be simple in form, lacking decorative embellishments,
in order to keep costs down. There were two models available in Ajax, a bungalow of 800
square feet with two bedrooms, and a large two-storey model with three bedrooms.
A typical house of this vintage in Ajax exhibited a steep roof which sloped further in the centre,
tongue-like, to form an overdoor porch. The bungalow had vents at the gable ends, while the
two-storey model featured paired traditional, multipaned sash windows to illuminate the
upstairs. Both models were covered in white clapboard siding.
The compact, neat exterior reflects the efficiently-arranged interior. All houses had a black
coal-burning stove for cooking, and a wood-burning stove in the living room for heating.
A staircase which closely followed the slope of the roof led to the upstairs in the larger dwelling.
John Blumenson sums up the architectural significance of wartime houses in his book Ontario
Architecture with his comment that ""Individually these houses are not prime examples of high
or academic style, but collectively they present to the public view a unique streetscape.""
Following the war, the government decided against dismantling the wartime houses.
They were offered for sale to DIL workers and veterans for between $3,500 and $4,000,
after being made permanent by the installation of foundations or basements. Most purchasers
chose the option of having a basement.
Today victory houses in Ajax are much altered in fenestration and exterior finishes.
Many bungalows have become two-storey dwellings, some have sizeable additions or new
basements. A few are totally unrecognizable from their humble beginnings as tiny wartime
houses.
Yet there remains a sense of security in the familiarity of seeing long avenues or crescents of
wartime houses not only in Ajax, but all across our country, providing us with a tangible,
visible link to an important part of our heritage — Canada's involvement in the Second World
War.
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