SOLVING 1950S HOUSING SHORTAGE WITH POLSON PARK

“Everything old is new again.” The phrase applies to recipes, fashion and pastimes, and also to the shortage of affordable housing. Around the middle of the 20th century, Canada desperately needed homes, similar to recent issues. Governments stepped in then, as now. The federal government initiated “land assembly subdivisions” to provide lower-priced serviced lots for contractors and individuals, and provided mortgage insurance. Construction for Polson Park in Kingston's midtown got underway in 1957 with the sod turning by the adult children of Neil C. Polson.

Due to the post-war population growth, the housing problem was concerning.

“In 1948, (Prime Minister Louis) St. Laurent decided to break with traditional federal practices to introduce the land assembly program and to begin to deal directly with municipalities,” Robert Mcgeachy said in “Polson Park and Calvin Park, 1954-1962: Two Land Assembly Subdivisions in Kingston, Ontario” (Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada

30, No. 1, 2005). The government did not override provincial authority; negotiations were held and “the necessary enabling acts to permit the federal government to work directly with municipalities were passed.”

Establishing the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in 1946 (in 1979 renamed Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation), the Crown agency was tasked with purchasing land and planning subdivisions. Setting the groundwork, the agency defined boundaries, installed sewers and streets. The lots were sold to individuals and developers. The advantage to the home buyer was an affordably priced lot with services in place, encouraging home ownership for the middle-income sector.

Mid-century, Kingston's industrial waterfront was spiralling into decline, and Market Square “was a scene of almost unbelievable desolation,” described Mcgeachy. Turning downtown into a beautiful destination became a priority to attract tourists, to feature the many heritage buildings and become a municipal profit-maker. The city's shortage of suitable land for housing development encouraged looking west; in 1954, a portion of the extensive farmland of Kingston Penitentiary was available for purchase. The elements in place, city council requested a federal land assembly subdivision project.

In 1955, CMHC bought 63 acres of land from the penitentiary and a small parcel from the Department of Health. “The cost of the purchase was $63,040, or $1,000 per acre,” wrote Mcgeachy. Two years later, on June 22, 1957, an official ceremony introducing Polson Park was held. Lt.-col. Stuart Polson turned the sod while his sister Jessie Polson, MPP W.M. Nickle, and others observed. The district was named for the late businessman and politician N.C. Polson.

A total of 220 prepared lots were available for sale a brief time after the ceremony, and potential buyers quickly queued up. Lots were reasonably “priced between $1,375 and $1,450,” Mcgeachy said, and “in contrast, private developers were charging approximately $2,500 for unserviced lots in their various projects.” Developers were charged an additional $800 per lot to discourage speculators, and “the surcharge was refunded if the homebuilder charged Cmhc-approved prices.”

Rapidly sprouting, most Polson Park homes were completed within a year's time. In 1959, the assembly land program expanded to a field right next to Polson Park. Named for a significant local family, Calvin Park was again professionally designed. The parcels were offered for $1,750 to $1,850, slightly higher prices than those of Polson Park.

The average middle-class worker in Ontario in the early 1960s earned $4,471, according to Mcgeachy, and the real estate industry estimated an affordable home would cost 2.5 times the annual wages. Providing mortgage protection, CMHC launched mortgage insurance in 1954 for potential homeowners with 25 per cent downpayment.

However, homes were expensive. In the early

1960s, “the median price for a house in Kingston was $14,190, almost $2,500 more than in comparatively sized Ontario cities.” (The city's population was just under 50,000.) Out of reach for many middle-class residents, Calvin Park homes were priced at about $16,000.

In 2024, governments are again searching for federal properties that may be applied to housing purposes, such as possibly renovating office buildings for living units and vacant land for neighbourhoods. Similar to initiatives today, the land assembly program was criticized for its benefits to the middle-class but leaving lower-income residents out in the cold. The struggle continues.

Regarded as a comfortable neighbourhood, Polson Park is a reminder of one of Kingston's prominent citizens, Neil Currie Polson. Born in Scotland on Aug. 4, 1852, Polson immigrated with his parents from Killarrow, Argyll, when he was a child. Well-educated, he trained to become a qualified druggist and then entered Queen's University.

In 1877, Polson opened a wholesale drug company in the city. “N.C. Polson & Co. became widely known across North America as a druggist and chemical manufacturer,” Museum of Health Care at Kingston said. Later, Polson established a location in Montreal. When the time was right, two sons took over operations — Neil Currie Polson Jr. and Henry Gordon Polson — and they continued to produce medications.

Innovating a variety products, Polson & Co. offered antiseptic oil, laxatives and “Polson's Tasteless Preparation” — a form of cod liver oil. The firm manufactured “Nerviline,” a multipurpose treatment for “neuralgia, toothache, rheumatic pains, sore throat, lumbago” and many more ailments, according to the museum.

The firm also produced “Catarrhozone” for respiratory illness. “Widely advertised as an inhaled germ-killer and remedy for all respiratory ailments,” the vapour treatment “was meant to be dropped onto a small piece of wool held inside the portable wood inhaler, then inhaled periodically through the mouth.” (View Polson's pharmacy artifacts in Dr. Michael A. Chong 's Patent Medicine Collection at the Museum of Health Care at Kingston: www. museum of healthcare. ca.)

Active in local politics, Polson was an alderman and member of the board of education. In 1893, he was acclaimed as mayor of Kingston, and “as president of the Liberal Association of Kingston, he extended to Sir Wilfrid Laurier the first invitation given to the statesman to speak publicly in this province,” the Montreal Gazette stated.

Polson and his wife, Hannah Washburn Mcdowall, had a family of eight children. His dear wife died in 1923 at about 73 years of age. She was buried at Cataraqui Cemetery. Neil Currie Polson died in hospital on July 1, 1940. He was laid to rest beside his wife in the family plot. Several family members were interred there later as well. As a lasting legacy, the family established two university awards for medical students: the Hannah Washburn Polson Prize and the Neil Currie Polson Memorial Prize.

Echoing the past, Kingston has a severe shortage of affordable homes. Let's hope this round of government strategies will proceed with as much and more satisfaction for residents and homeowners as it did seven decades ago.