History of Toronto’s unique barrel-roofed house

Tucked away in a quiet neighbourhood in Toronto’s west end is an unusual barrel-roofed home.

The brick home is tall, narrow and topped with a barrel-shaped roof. Windows run the length of the building following the rounded shape of the roof at the top.

Located in the Junction area, on 72 Abbott Ave., the home has been featured on tours of the neighbourhood.

Built around 1970, it was an infill home, according to notes on a walking tour from the West Bend Association website.

“An oddity amongst the oaks and Edwardians, this is a wonderful example of 1970’s infill tucked in beside a laneway with a side-built carriage house,” the tour notes say.

The home was built in a modernist or slightly post-modernist style, Duncan Farnan of the Toronto West Bend Association said in a 2010 Jane’s Walk.

“This is a great house,” Farnan said.

There are several examples of homes in Toronto built on small lots because the land was severed from a larger property, he said.

“It seems a little out of place in this neighbourhood,” he added.

Abbott Avenue is a small road that was formerly known as Birtle Avenue in the late 1800s, according to the West Toronto Junction Historical Society. At some point between 1903 and 1912 it was renamed Abbot Avenue.

A photo of the street from 1925 shows a dirt road with a few Edwardian-style homes.

Abbott Avenue in 1925. Photo: City of Toronto Archives

Lead photo: Google Maps