The Roncesvalles Foursquare, and why it squeaks
Roncesvalles squeaks follow one house type. The area belonged to the villages of Parkdale and Brockton before they were annexed to Toronto in the 1880s, and a streetcar yard opened at Roncesvalles and Queen in 1895. It was then largely built from 1900 until the First World War, almost all in the Foursquare style, mostly as middle-class houses. A Foursquare is a two and a half storey house on a square plan, so the bedrooms sit directly over the main rooms and the staircase runs up through the middle of the house. The era-typical floor is strip hardwood over plank subfloor on sawn joists, held by nails that have had more than a century of seasonal movement. Two later changes alter the floor. Many large older homes were divided into apartments, and a conversion usually adds a kitchen or bathroom upstairs and moves walls, which changes where the floor carries load. And on Sorauren Avenue, former industrial buildings were converted into loft condominiums with a different floor system again.
