The O'Connor-Lafferty House
The farmhouse that once stood near this site was built by a Black man, William Lafferty and his sons between 1851 and 1856. He came to Upper Canada from the United States in the 1830's. William settled in the town of York (now Toronto) where he became a grocer and owned several properties. His son, William Dennis Lafferty resided here until 1878 when John O'Connor purchased the property and established his eldest son, John Joseph and his bride, Ellen, on the farm. They had one son and eight daughters. The daughters formed the famous O'Connor Sisters act and performed in Vaudeville, radio and television. The house remained in the O'Connor family until 1989 when it was sold to a developer and demolished.
The house had walls 1 m thick, made entirely of fieldstones found on the farm. The 20 ha of farmland consisted largely of orchards, developed by the Lafferty family. The O'Connor's maintained the orchards until the 1920's, when most of the farm was turned into residential housing.
Although the house originally faced on to Horner Avenue, development saw the house designated as 12 Connorvale. Connorvale Avenue was originally called O'Connor Avenue, until 1956, when amalgamation with the Corporation of Metropolitan Toronto forced the renaming of the street.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.