Here's a little followup to the 2013 post "On the Fence," which explains how the mile-and-a-half-long wooden fence on the west side of Craven Road (formerly Erie Terrace) was created when the City of Toronto decided to widen the road over a century ago.
Below is a summary of how the fence came to be, but if you've read the earlier post, you can jump down to the new stuff.
Way, way back in February 1912, the Toronto Star wrote:
"The Works Department has a number of vexatious street problems on hand…. One is on Erie Terrace in the Midway. It runs north from Queen street to Danforth avenue, and the width varies from 15 to 22 feet. There are small frame houses along one side, and on the other are the backyards of houses which front on an adjoining street. It is proposed to add about ten feet to the width of Erie Terrace, taking the land from these yards.
"But what then? Who will pay? The houses now built on the Terrace will have to pay their share, the city will have to pay its share, but what about the share which would ordinarily be paid by the properties on the opposite side of the street? The people whose back yards are taken get no benefit from the street improvement, for their residences front on another thoroughfare. Erie Terrace is their back lane, and they don't care whether it is ten feet wide or thirty-five.
"There is not enough room to build houses on both sides of the Terrace, and the city will have to find some way out of the difficulty."
In October 1912, the Star followed up with a photo and a front-page feature:
