Site of the Women’s Residences

Site of the Women’s Residences. Defence Industries Limited. To aid Britain and the Allies during world war two, the Canadian Government built the largest ammunitions plant in the British Commonwealth on 2,800 acres of land expropriated from Pickering Township. At its peak, Defence Industries Limited employed over 9,000 workers, primarily women, who were recruited from as far as Alberta and Nova Scotia., To accommodate the female staff, 21 residences were built to hold 100 people, two women per room. Each residence had a common room and came with a designated 'housemother'. The site included a large cafeteria and a beauty shop. The entire women's compound was surrounded by an eight foot high fence, topped by three strands of barbed wire. Though not luxurious by any means, the residences provided a comfortable home for the women brought in to work at the plant., After the plant closed in 1945, the site and buildings were used by the University of Toronto as the university's Ajax Campus until 1949. From 1950 until 1953, the government used the site as a Displaced Person Camp to house thousands of refugees from post war Europe. The land was then turned over to the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, who eventually removed the dormitories to make way for a new residential subdivision.