Areas near the periphery of urbanized Toronto, like Cabbagetown, were viewed as ideal places to develop housing for Toronto's growing migrant population, leading to these areas being developed in large piecemeal fashion by speculative developers. During the building boom in the 1880s, nearly half of the 3,000 homes built in Cabbagetown were bay-and-gables, with many of these homes initially owned by a select number of speculative developers. Many mass-produced 19th century units only bricked the building's façade, with the building's largely being built on mass-produced timbers filled with furring strips, lath and stucco, or veneer. Mass-produced timber frames were used to speed up the construction of units without compromising the stability of the buildings; with developers having expected the eventual homeowners to brick the remaining portions when they could afford it. Many later opted to cover the wood siding with fake brick known as Insulbrick. Although early bay-and-gables were symmetrical and were built as mirrored pairs; by 1878, rows of identical semi-detached bay-and-gable units were built.
