Per City of Toronto Directories, 13-15 Saint Andrew Street, Toronto was constructed in 1897. It does not appear in Goad's Fire Insurance Maps until the 1913 edition.

Per the 1913 Fire Insurance Plans, there used to be 4 other houses to the immediate west of 13-15 Saint Andrew Street. These other houses were demolished prior to the 1960s. 

13-15 Saint Andrew Street is architecturally unique within Kensington Market and surrounding neighbourhoods. 

The first occupants of 13-15 Saint Andrew Street, Toronto were: 

13 Saint Andrew Street: Arundell P. Watts (also known as A. Pryor Watts) - a bookseller and publisher. 


15 Saint Andrew Street: Walter E. Meharg - a manufacturers' agent who was also involved with the Toronto Granites ice hckey team in the 1890s.

13 Saint Andrew Street was also home to Laura Elizabeth McCully (1886-1924) and family between 1907 and 1909. Laura E. McCully was a First Wave Canadian Feminist, an activist, an author, a journalist, and a poet. 

In her early teens, Laura McCully wrote poetry which was published in the young authors sections of the Toronto Daily Star and Empire newspapers. In November 1899, Harper's Bazaar published a biographical sketch of McCully - aged 13 - and called her "a Canadian song-bird" (see attached). A few years later (in 1903/1904), McCully attended the University of Toronto. At the University of Toronto, she is noted to have been involved in University athletics; the Women's Literary Society; and published poetry in The Varsity. McCully later became one of the first women to receive a master's degree at the University of Toronto. McCully's master's thesis (1908) examined how divorce laws impacted women and children and unfairly benefited men. Of note is that during this period, McCully's mother was suing her father for bigamy and identified as a widow despite her husband still being alive. In 1909, McCully received a PhD fellowship at Yale University which was rarely provided to women, though returned to Toronto after only 1 year of studies.

Prior to the fellowship and after returning to Toronto, McCully was working as a journalist with the Toronto Daily News; the Toronto World; and The Sunday World newspapers. McCully was an ardent supporter for and of the rights of women. She regularly published articles and letters - often in newspapers - to defend and promote equal rights and women's suffrage. Sophia Sperdakos in "For the love of the working" : Laura Elizabeth McCully, First-Wave Feminist (1992) notes that in the summer of 1908, McCully provided open air addresses (speeches) on women's suffrage to audiences in Orillia and Toronto. McCully later described these as being "the first outdoor meetings [that] marked the suffrage propaganda [movement] in Canada" (as most suffrage-related meetings were held indoors (frequently in private) prior to this point). Media accounts describe over 700 people were in the audience during one of her outdoor speeches at an event in Orillia on 10 August 1908. Of particular note is that the National Council of Women did not formally endorse women's suffrage in Canada until 1910.  During the early 1910s, Laura E. McCully became active in the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association alongside Flora MacDonald Denison (1867-1921); Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen (1857-1943); and Alice Chown (1866-1949).  McCully's 1924 obituary in The Globe (Toronto) notably stated that her work rivalled that of Pauline Johnson (also known as Tekahionwake) (1861-1913). 

During World War I, McCully joined the Women's Home Guard in Toronto - an "organization which taught women nursing, first aid, shooting, and military drill" - and held the position of treasurer in 1914-1915. McCully supported Canada entering World War I and wrote on the subject. A conflict between Laura McCully and Jessie McNab (the head of the Women's Home Guard) caused a split in the organization in 1915, which resulted in McCully's resignation as treasurer. She was also employed during this period in munitions-related work.

In the 1910s, McCully published 2 books of poetry: Mary Magdalene and Other Poems (1914) and Bird of Dawn and Other Lyrics (1919).  

McCully was diabetic (Type I). In 1917, McCully was hospitalized with dementia praecox and/or paranoid schizophrenia, alongside complications of untreated diabetes. This resulted in both mental and physical health challenges, including chronic exhaustion and a suicide attempt. McCully remained in hospital until June 1918 before being released. Sperdakos (1992) notes that by March 1923, McCully and her mother "were barely surviving in an unheated room at 3 Fitzroy Terrace in [Kensington Market] Toronto in what was described as a "half-starved condition"."  Both Laura McCully and her mother (Helen McCully (1845/1849 - 1931)) were admitted to hospital in March 1923. Laura McCully passed away - aged 38 - on 7 July 1924 from complications of terminal diabetes (Type I).