This is a tale of money…. A somewhat difficult to follow tale, but I’ve tried to piece as much of the story as possible. The house was purchased in 2007 for $1,700,000 by a man named Mr. Wang. Wang graduated from the University of Alberta in 2004.

The home’s address was used as the base for several businesses.

From 2009 to 2013, a man named Mr. Li likely lived at this address. He ran a renovation company with his brother with his office address listed as this house. His social media page also shows him celebrating Christmas in this home.

(Photos from Facebook – Fair use)

From 2017 to 2020, a business related to golfing was listed at this address with the director being listed as Mr. G. G. began working in marketing for King’s Square Mall in 2014. King’s Square Mall will be very important in the telling of this story.

In 2018, a spa lounge was registered and the Director’s address was listed as belonging to this house’s address. The director was a Mr. Cao. The address of the lounge was listed as being in the King’s Square Mall.

It seems that several people renting out this mansion worked for businesses located in King’s Square Mall. The King’s Square Mall was built in Markham as an Asian mall with one million square feet of space. It was advertised as having a banquet hall, convention centre, and a rooftop garden.
 
Construction of the mall took place from about 2013 until 2018. The occupancy date was pushed back but by June of 2018 construction was completed. One of the parties interested in purchasing occupancy in the mall was a Ms. Shao Yun Yao.

Yao had paid all interim amounts owing for the five condo units she was interested in.  When Yao encountered difficulty in securing a mortgage, King Square (KS) agreed that the money could be paid in Chinese currency because the CEO of King Square (KS) was located there. The CEO was Mr. Wang – the owner of this house. Several tenants of Mr. Wang’s mall also happened to live in his rental.

The agreement between King Square and Ms. Yao was amended to terminate purchase of one of the five units, and Yao would submit payment for the remaining four units. Her deposit for the terminated unit would be applied to the amount owing. Yao would remit $568,693, to be paid by October of 2019. She made the payment and was set to take the title to the units by November 8, 2019.

The closing was postponed several times and was finally to have taken place March 30, 2020 when KS communicated that they’d be able to deliver the clear title. The closings did not occur.

From March to May of 2020, several communications took place. Both parties eventually agreed that the transactions would be terminated and KS would refund all monies paid to them which included the deposits, closing fees and management fees.

Despite receiving a Settlement Agreement from KS, Yao failed to receive the money she’d paid to the company. On June 16, 2020 Yao’s lawyer sent a letter to KS demanding payment. On July 28, 2020 a process server served KS with a Statement of Claim. On August 6, 2020 Mr. Wang was personally served with the Statement of Claim.

Yao’s lawyer then sent out notices via fax, email and postal letter requesting that the Defendants have their legal representation contact him to arrange for delivery of their pleadings. The lawyer stated that if the defendants did not respond, he would note them as in default under the Rules of Civil Procedure. This meant that if they failed to respond, the lawyer could proceed with asking the court for a judgement amount without a hearing involving both parties.

Yao’s lawyer asked the local registrar to note that both King Square and Mr. Wang were in default. The next step would be to bring a motion for default judgement which was to take place in November of 2020. A default judgement would allow Yao to collect the monies owed to her. The amount owing was $1,281,832.

This brings us to the house…

The last known tenants living in Mr. Wang’s house were a young couple with a child. The house itself is majestic, quite large and built to resemble a castle. It sits up on a hill behind a gated driveway.

I spent several hours trying to track down the original owners and designer of the house, only to end up at a dead end. I know that it was built in 1973.

According to a neighbour, the house has remained vacant for many of the thirteen years that they’ve lived on the same street. She mentioned that several residents were students from Asia. Some of the tenants perform renovations to the house for a few months and then the house is vacant again. From 2000 to 2007 the house has been repeatedly bought and sold, only to be lived in for a year at a time.

There are 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, a ballroom, home theatre, pool, and hardwood floors throughout.

The main floor features a master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and office area. The size of the bedroom is comparable to that of an apartment. The western portion of the main floor leads to the indoor swimming pool. As seen from the exterior of the house, there are castle towers on the roof of the swimming area.

Next to the swimming pool room is a meeting room with a round table large enough for over one dozen people to sit. Next to the meeting room is the wine cellar which could hold over 300 bottles. The lower level leads to the exercise room, home theatre room, the garage and a separate bedroom living area.

The kitchen is an absolute mess. The counter is full of utensils, pots and dirty plates. A nearby calendar shows March of 2021. There are several items left tossed on the floor.

The upstairs features an office area (shown in the photos above) and a second master bedroom.

It seems the tenants left in quite a hurry, making no effort to tidy up after themselves. These items include furniture wrapped in protective plastic, books, children’s toys, dishes, and electronics. It appears that the tenants enjoyed living a lavish lifestyle. I discovered in the wine cellar, approximately two dozens empty bottles of wine. In the same cellar was a box of Arturo Fuente King T cigars, not overly expensive but not cheap either. In the bedrooms were several empty boxes of Gucci and Louis Vuitton merchandise.

In what could only be considered irony, the tenants of the home were issued an eviction notice by Mr. Wang for allegedly failing to pay $140,000 owing in lease. The notice was issued on July 21, 2023. Given the Christmas decorations and calendar dated to 2021, I suspect that the tenants were already long gone.

The house has seen few visits by explorers, which is good. This low traffic means low possibility of vandalism and theft. While I found much of the contents to be tacky, I suspect there are a few thousand dollars worth of furniture and electronics left inside.

I did learn that a couple of explorers had been apprehended for trespassing shortly after my visit.

Cell Photos

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This house has a long history dating back to 1860, when it was originally built. It features a gable roof with dormers, two-storey veranda and gingerbread. The Italianate style house belonged to David Reesor, the son of Christopher Reesor and Margaret Armstrong.

(TWP: I believe the farm originally belonged to David’s father, Christopher and later passed onto David.)

David and his brother Robert owned numerous properties in the southern Ontario area.

The David Reesor property became known as the Silver Spring Farm. Mr. Reesor bred horses and cattle in Manitoba which they imported from overseas. They held livestock auctions at the farm dating back to at least 1872.

The eight acre property was the site of some huge social gatherings. In 1886, a Monster Social was held with over 5,000 people attending. The Monster Social was hosted by members of the Zion Presbyterian Church. The Ontario and Quebec railroad lines ran eight rail cars from Toronto to the Silver Spring Farm for the event. The trains would then wait at the siding at Locust Hill to return the visitors home. A stage coach ran every 20 minutes from Markham Village to take passengers to the social event.

Hundreds of attendees arrived in vehicles in addition to those who arrived by train. There were tables set up across the vast property and Chinese lanterns hanging from the trees. The Massey band, a concertina band and bagpipes played at the event.

Some of the money raised at the social was used to fund the construction of a new brick church.

Film Production

The house was used for a film location in the movie Funeral Home (1980). It’s difficult for me to determine if the interior of the house was used for the entire movie. There are distinctive scenes where you can match the doors and hallways but the interior of some rooms appear quite different. Also I don’t believe there was a large basement with an exterior cellar door. Then again I didn’t check the basement.

Production of the movie took place between July 23, 1979 to September 12, 1979. The front of the house is without the additional porch extension.

The house was used for an episode of the 1990’s Canadian-American horror series, Goosebumps for the “Night of the Living Dummy III” episode.

The house was purchased by a numbered company in November of 2022 for $11 million dollars. This almost guarantees that the house will be demolished and new housing taking it’s place. The previous owner was Merle Highcock whose name was added to the title in 1995, likely a transfer from within the family. There is zero online presence for Mr. Highcock.

Current

The house was last occupied by the Pilkington family. It still has working electricity and has been quite active in the urbex circuit. The property is listed in the Municipal Register of properties with potential heritage value however it doesn’t appear to have official heritage designation to protect it from demolition.

There’s an active farm on the property which sells fresh fruits and vegetables.

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