Today’s Photo Du Jour covers Victory homes. In Canada theses homes were built and owned by Wartime Housing Ltd. The crown corporation bought materials and land and followed through with orders for homes across the country. Victory Homes came in two models: a two-room bungalow or a four-bedroom, one-and-a-half storey house. They were tiny by today’s standards – and without basements and furnaces – but they met the need.
After the war, many veterans moved into Victory Homes after the war and renovated them. Some of them, enlarged and updated, are standing today. But there was still a post-war housing crisis. The entire economy was affected by a continued scarcity of materials and of the money to acquire housing. In 1946 the federal government responded by creating the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (now the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation). The assets of Wartime Housing Ltd. Were transferred to CMHC in 1947 (including the responsibility of housing veterans) through the Veteran’s Rental Housing program.
(info above from this link)
Between 1941 & 1945 – 19 000 of these houses were built across Canada. In 1946-47 – 13 000 more were built to house returning servicemen. Of the 32 000 units built in Canada, 2500 were in Windsor. Many of these local units still survive today.
Giradot St. Windsor’s West side – 1940’s.
Photo above from the Bernie Drouillard Collection.
Street scenes in the Memorial Park area of Windsor.
A good textbook example.
One still sporting the faux stone siding.
A pair, each with a different look.
Two for the price of one? A horrible second story addition.
Another example.
The images below are from “Building Canada – Small Homes – 1946”
For a higher quility copy of the images below – Click this link for 5 mb .pdf file.
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Thank you for taking an interest in these homes,they are well designed and built, and they are an important part of our Canadian Heritage. The people our neighbourhood take great pride in their Victory (aka Vets)Homes. I thought you might like to know. There are 3 types of Victory homes, in our neighbourhood, they all have basements:
Type A a 2 bedroom bungalow (3rd & 4th picture),
Type C a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 storey no dinning room (5th picture), and
Type D a 4 bedroom 1 1/2 srorey with dinning room (11th picture) tended to be purchase by officers.
When we spoke with one of the original architects many years ago,he told us a little known fact that the homes were planned to have the front door as we know them to be at the back so the livingroom window would face a common grassy area. In Quebec I have seen the Victory houses built sideways on the lot.
Lynn, Thanks for the addional information. These are truly part out our bult heritage. Where I live in Windsor we have several large subdivisions of them.
Small world! I lived directly across from the little white and green one in the 2300 block of Wellesley Ave for 8 yrs...just moved a year and a half ago from there. When I was under the house in the crawl space looking for my cable wires, I came across a newspaper page that was crumbled but it looked like it said 194?? and an old pack of players cigs with the calender on them- I believe it was the early 60's if I remember correctly. These houses were build cheap but for a few thousand, I got mine looking really nice before I sold it.
I dId not see the style of victory house that i was born in at 32 29th st in Longbranch Ontario in December of 1948. It was a two story home with a ground level center hall plan, four bedrooms, one full bath, living room and kitchen. I think it also had a small porch at the rear side entrance. It did not have a basement. The house was heated by a small oil heater that was located in the corner of the living room, although to say it was heated would be a bit of an exaggeration. I seem to recall that the floors were covered with linoleum, coupled with the poor heat distribution from the oil heater these were sure to get you moving when your feet hit the floor on those cold Canadian mornings.
There are several thousand Victory Homes in the Halifax-Dartmouth area of Nova Scotia. My grandparents bought a new one as newlyweds shortly after WWII. If my memory is correct, they paid only about $3000 for a 4-bedroom one-and-a-half storey model, but they were additionally obligated to pour a full foundation (i.e. with an eight-foot basement) within a year or so of moving in. I'm not sure if that was a CMHC requirement or a bylaw specific to Halifax.
Decades of renovations--not all of them successful--have somewhat ameliorated the cookie-cutter feel to Victory Home neighbourhoods, but it's always a bit unnerving to step off a plane in another part of Canada and find myself driving down what appears to be my grandparent's street!
This has been very helpful.
Lynn - I live in a 4 room 1946 victory house in Winnipeg which is sideways on the lot, like you mentioned in Quebec. The "front" door is at the side of the house and the front of the house has the livingroom window and a bedroom window only.
does anyone have any info on the WW1 houses om 108ave and 125st in edmonton Alberta. there are 6 in a row and we are redoing them now
There are several hundred Victory Homes in Ajax, Ontario adjacent to Hwy. 401 (just east of Toronto) which were intended to be demolished after the war. However, due to the continuing need for affordable housing and the desirable location of the homes - within walking distance of the downtown area - they have been not only retained but improved over the intervening years. Many have been expanded and altered by replacing windows, doors and siding, adding porches and decks, etc. but they still form a very cohesive and distinctive neighbourhood.
We purchased a 2br Victory Home (built 1946) in the deep east end of Toronto about 7 years ago. I love these houses and as money permits, am very slowly redecorating/renovating it to have that retro post war look.
In my Ottawa neighbourhood, the Victory homes are located on streets named, Veteran, Admiral, and General. I have one of the type A, two bedroom houses. 25 x 25 feet isn't much space but these houses are surprisingly sturdy.