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<\/a><\/p>\nThe “transformer home” on Millwood Rd. was designed to closely match the look of its post-war Leaside neighbours. Toronto Hydro added decorative wooden shutters, a crazy-paved walkway, neat little flower beds, even a brick chimney\u00a0in an effort to hide the building’s real purpose. A chain across the driveway is the only obvious modern addition. “People kept parking in there,” says a passer-by.<\/p>\n
The home cost about $5,000 to build in the late 1940s. Like a movie prop, the inside is mostly bare, but there’s an attic space and a working washroom for visiting engineers. A 1958 Globe and Mail<\/em> article reported transformer homes were often convincing enough to fool canvassers and circular distributors when they were new. It’s easy to see why.<\/p>\n All told, there are 79 active\u00a0transformer homes dotted across Toronto, but there used to be more than 200. One of the oldest dates back to the 1930s. The massive Gothic hulk of Glengrove station, which sits on the west side of Yonge St. a short distance south of Lawrence, was\u00a0an early attempt by Toronto Hydro to\u00a0shroud its unsightly guts in something pleasing to the eye. Unlike the later\u00a0transformer homes, however, Glengrove was never meant to\u00a0hide in plain sight.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n