Residential property in Montreal and Toronto 1921-1951, two cities, two different worlds
Abstract
Between 1921 and 1951 Montreal and Toronto experienced their urban growth in rather different ways. Certainly suburban growth occurred in both cases but much more prominently in Toronto, whereas the inner parts of Montreal continued to attract population and new housing. Montreal's density of housing development was substantially higher at this time than that around Toronto. Greater Toronto developed as a city of single-family homes. By contrast, Montreal displayed a greater emphasis on apartments in middle-class as well as working-class areas, in suburbs as well as near the city centre. Despite these contrasts the housing features in the two cities are more complicated than is often assumed. Both cities display more diversity in tenurial arrangements over this period than popular stereotypes suggest. Montreal is not just a city of tenants living in apartments, nor is Toronto just a city of owners of individual family homes. -H.Clout