113 Gledhill Avenue, East York, Toronto

In October, 1918 the Prince Edward Viaduct was completed connecting Danforth Avenue to Bloor Street and downtown Toronto. The construction of the viaduct spurred a development boom along the Danforth which was at that time, in large measure, farmland*. A cherry farmer with an orchard north east of Danforth and Woodbine decided this would be a good time to sell his property. He subdivided the orchard and sold it off as building lots. Henry Harold Harrison, who was living on Hamilton Street near Broadway and Gerrard, purchased one of the farmer’s lots.

Harold, who had spent much of his time in Canada building houses, built a house for his family at 113 Gledhill Avenue between 1919 and 1921. When he finished the three-room basement he covered it with a temporary roof and Harold, Agnes, and their three sons (Hank, John, and Gord) moved in. Son Douglas was born in July 1919 while the family was living in the basement. The upper floors of the house were completed before the birth of daughter Audrey in March 1922. When the children were growing up, the four sons occupied one bedroom with the second reserved for the daughter. All of the Harrison children lived there until they married or, in the case of Douglas, joined the army. During the Depression, the family defaulted on the mortgage and lost ownership of the house; however, the mortgage holder, a kind woman by the name of Nellie Lapp, let the family stay in the house until Henry Harold (Hank) Harrison Jr. earned enough money to pay off the mortgage. Harold and Agnes lived there until sometime after Harold’s retirement in the early fifties.

The home at 113 Gledhill Avenue was located four blocks east of Woodbine Avenue and two long blocks north of Danforth Avenue. It was and is a typical East York house of the time – a two-story, three-bedroom brick house on about 30 feet of frontage. The principal rooms occupy the main floor and the bedrooms, the second floor. In the 1931 census Harold described the house as a 7 room brick and veneer building valued at $4,500.

Coming through the front door, to the left there was a “cloakroom” and to the right was the living room. Behind the living room was the dining room, which had a round oak pedestal dining table, six chairs, and a buffet. Between the dining and living rooms stood a floor model radio, typical of the 1930s. A doorway at the left side of the dining room led to the kitchen. Dominating the kitchen up until about the late 1940s was a large cast iron stove, after which time it was moved to the basement where Agnes would still use it to cook or bake during the hot weather.

On the second floor, in addition to the three bedrooms and a bathroom there was a sun porch that overlooked the backyard. One of the grandchildren remembers a steamer trunk there, which no doubt was brought over from the “old country” by either Harold or Agnes in the early 1900s.

From the kitchen, there were steps leading to the back door, and continuing around the corner, steps that led to the basement, and by the 1940s there was no longer any sign of the three rooms that had housed a family of five in the 1920s. It eventually contained, among other things, a work area for Harold, where in later years he patiently helped grandchildren “build” things.

The backyard contained several fruit trees – cherry, apple, and pear, planted by Harold, and lots of space for first the children, and then the grandchildren to play.

The home that Harold and Agnes built saw five children grow up and marry, and over the years became a gathering place for a family that, with spouses and grandchildren, eventually numbered twenty-five.

Footnotes