The Media Discover "Tiny Town"

"In the east end of Toronto, between Coxwell and Greenwood Avenues, there’s a place called 'Tiny Town.' The neighbourhood name might not show up on a map, but if you travel up and down Craven Road you’ll realize that the area is truly the epitome of modest living. 

On Craven, you’ll find the largest collection of single houses under 500 square feet in the city. You’ll also find the longest wooden (and municipally maintained) fence in the city."

Spacing's February 13, 2013 article "Tiny House Society of Craven Rd.", quoted above, is just one of several features on the street in the past few years.

The first came on May 8, 2010, a Toronto Star article titled "Compact living in Toronto’s tiny town," which seems to have coined the nickname:

Craven Road, the epicentre of Tiny Town, dubbed as such by the Star in honour of the neighbourhood’s unusual claim. For here lies the city’s highest concentration of detached houses under 500 square feet....  

What we are talking about is the best sort of small, teeny cottages, one after the other, lived in and loved, some braced up against more muscular houses, holding fast against the every-home-requires-three-bathrooms-and-a-monster-entertainment-room trend.... 

In March of this year, doubtless inspired by the Spacing article, CBC's The National sent reporter Marivel Taruc to get the street on camera for their "Only in Canada" feature:

Toronto's tiny town, March 28, 2013 (2:36 minutes)



They repurposed the piece with some new footage for CBC News Toronto at 5:30 the next day:

Toronto's tiniest homes, March 29, 2013 (2:04 minutes)



But just over a century ago, the street was getting a lot less love in the press. Read the next post, "On the Fence", for some stormy newspaper coverage from 1911 to 1916...