Toronto, Ontario
269 Ranee Avenue was the home of Doug and Angela Harrison and their family from 1956 until 2011. The home was (and still is) a 900 square foot, 3-bedroom bungalow with a partially finished basement to which Doug added a “sun room” at the back.
The Harrison children lived at 269 Ranee Avenue until they left home in the 1960s. Doug and Angela were still living there when Doug died in 1994. Angela lived alone in the house until 2011 when, at the age of 96, she decided to move to Belmont House retirement home.
The Ranee Avenue neighbourhood changed considerably during the 55 years the Harrison family lived there. When Doug and Angela purchased the house in 1956 Ranee Avenue was a strip of asphalt with ditches on both sides running through a field between Dufferin and Bathurst Streets. The field extended from highway 401 in the north to Lawrence Avenue in the south. In the 1960s the field to the south was developed as the Flemington Park subsidized housing community. The Yorkdale Shopping Centre was developed in the field to the north. In 1978 the Allen Expressway and extension of the University subway line sprouted up about 50 meters east of 269 Ranee with a subway station conveniently located next to the house.
The value of the property also changed considerably between 1956 and 2011, from $11,500 to more than $600,000.