Maria Street had an additional incentive for relocation. By the early 1900s, a building project was developed by Gaffeny and Casselman. The aim was to create a co-operative housing and employment plan whereby each resident would buy a house on the street and would commit hours of labour to build others. In exchange, the buyers would be provided with jobs at a new needleworks being built nearby.
text source, Ontario Jewish Archives.
Joseph Alexandroff
Joseph Alexandroff describes how many immigrant Jewish families came to live on Maria Street because of housing incentives. Interviewer: Diana Fancher. Ontario Jewish Archives, July 17, 1987, Oral History #AC-199.
click link below to hear this audio hosted at the Ontario Jewish Archives.
