Nan Finlayson’s designated heritage home is standing in the way of widening Wharncliffe Road at the Stanley Street rail trestle.
And she’s not about to give in to civic leaders, she says.
Nan's home sits at the corner of Wharncliffe Road and Stanley Street. Her backyard is the CN train trestle that needs to be replaced to widen Wharncliffe.
"It's important to help people get across town and the bottleneck at Horton Street is a long standing issue that causes issues and safety concerns on the road,” says the city’s Doug MacRae.
But Nan loves everything about her 120-year-old residence, right down to the Class 1 heritage plaque affixed to the front entrance.
“I thought, "There it is. There is the house I've been looking for,'” Nan recalls saying when she first saw the home.
Three homes on the other side of Wharncliffe have already been cleared to make way for the widening project. Suggested plans would see a crane installed in Nan’s backyard, making her home unliveable.
"I feel I'm being hoodwinked in many ways. That was the message I got, that they were going to be able to just take it from me,” she says.
The city wants to complete Wharncliffe widening before construction begins on rapid transit, but officials still expect it will be another two years at least before Nan must go.
