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This was once the home of Ivan and Katherine, and their two children. The family purchased the property in 1987. While the exact construction date of the house is unclear, the land itself was bought by a construction company in 1977 and later sold to the Mancini family in 1980.

Tragically, Ivan passed away just a few years after moving in, in 1991. Katherine, who worked as a pension administrator, remained in the home and in 2002 took out a mortgage against the property.

In 2023, after decades of ownership, Katherine sold the house to Dahab Homes Incorporated, a London-based company, for $5.9 million. While the price was steep for a single property, the surrounding land holds significant development potential. Dahab Homes plans to construct nine new homes on the site.

The house has now sat vacant for just over a year. I added it to my exploration list some time ago, but didn’t get around to visiting until the spring of 2025. By then, it had been boarded up, making it difficult to photograph the interior. The trip was a spontaneous one, and I hadn’t brought a light with me.

Inside, the house showed clear signs of neglect. Graffiti covered the walls, debris had been thrown into the empty swimming pool, and there were holes punched through the drywall. The property has suffered significant vandalism since it became known in the urban exploration community.

These (terrible) photos were taken with a cell phone.

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This house was vacant for some time and changed ownership in recent years. It was never a biker house as far as I know, the name stems from information obtained from a neighbour. They had been keeping an eye on the house and one night noticed people inside the house with flashlights, who appeared to be “biker types”. I figured it might be curious explorers as they said that they were moving in the following Tuesday – which didn’t happen.

In any event, the house is now occupied and workers are repairing water damage in the kitchen. Maybe the curious flashlight explorers were indeed the owners. I can’t give away too much information on this place, as it’s now active.

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I came across this house unexpectedly, drawn in by its unkempt lawn. I had to wait a day or two before I could visit, and I worried that anything left behind might be discarded if I delayed too long. The house is nestled in a fairly upscale part of the city though.

The house looks to have been built around 1950 and if one assumes that the occupants were elderly and chose not to upgrade the interior, that assumption would be correct. This was the home of V. and L. V & L both have old-fashioned names, which are not as popular today. The wife was born in 1922 and passed away in 2003. The husband was born in 1924 and passed away in 2022.

I don’t have any history on the house itself but I’m going on the assumption that the couple lived here their entire lives. There isn’t much left in the house to indicate what the couple’s occupations were. The house has been vacant for a couple of years and cleaned out of the majority of contents.

The basement has a few rooms and a cold cellar but nothing of interest.

There is still electricity. The land is for sale at just under $1,000,000. When the husband passed away in 2022, the house was sold in an estate sale.

As for the title of this post, it’s a joke. I notice people fabricate celebrities on YouTube who are alleged to have owned Ontario houses. My research always indicates the truth is anything but.

Cell phone photos

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This automobile graveyard is located in an undisclosed part of Ontario. The cars are arranged into rows and there’s quite an assortment of vehicles. There used to be a house on the property which was burned down. The owner apparently owns a second property that also contains an automobile yard. It’s almost impossible to photograph the cars during the summer due to the overgrowth. Fall is the most opportune time to visit.

This property sits along a street filled with million dollar homes in a Toronto neighbourhood. It was first built in 1981 and owned by a Mr. Joe Clements. Mr. Clements worked as a construction worker. The family remained in the home until 1996. At that time the house sold for $420,000.

The next family remained in the home until 2008, the house sold again the following year. In 2016, Joe Agg and his wife purchased the house. Mr. Agg is an environmentalist and volunteers his time to cleaning up waterways in his neighbourhood.

The Agg couple remained in the home until 2022 when it was purchased for $2,360,000 by Liyuan Qi. Qi runs an investment company in the Greater Toronto Area. Given the outdated interior design, the black mold and some original features such as the intercoms, this house will be demolished.

As It Is

As It Was

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A southern Ontario town was selected to be the site of a new plant that will build EV car batteries. Good for the environment right? Local farmers however felt that the land could have been used for agricultural purposes. The town purchased lots of land for between $65,000 to $150,000 per acre.

House #1

This house is known as the Van Patter Home, named for the family that lived in it for most of the 20th century. The house was built in 1872 by the Gilbert family. Brothers Mathew and William Gilbert hired a contractor named Auckland to build houses for each of them. The houses were to resemble their family’s estate back in Devonshire named “Rhude”. The house shown below is the one built for Mathew. The one built for William was named “Gilbert Hall”.

Upon Mathew’s death in 1907, the land was inherited by his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Ballah. A tenant farmer tended to the farm land. When Mary Elizabeth passed away in 1929, the Canada Trust Company granted both lots to John A. Van Patter.

The house was built with Roman arch windows and eave brackets. While the yard is quite overgrown, it looks like someone had been working on renovations quite recently. The rear of the house has modern day patio doors, freshly boarded windows and there’s working electricity.

Thank you to M. Foster for the information on these houses being vacant.

House #2

This house was also built by the Gibert family. It was constructed in 191 by Lewis Gilbert. This house is also being demolished.

I found this property while taking an unexpected route in Southern Ontario. There are several outbuildings in addition to the house. From my brief research, I learned that it belonged to a religious farmer. The property is for sale for close to $4,000,000. The house itself has a distinct raccoon poop smell and I suspect there are a few active hornet nests outside.

The name of the location comes from a notice on the rear door that was likely to indicate that the family used to sell cheese from their house.

The photos were taken with an Android phone. Poltergeists tampered with the second photo of the house.

This elegant looking house was a bit of a disappointment. Initially I was only able to see through the windows of the secured house, but I knew if I kept trying that it would one day be open. Such was the case on my last road trip when I stopped in and tried the garage door. One of the signs that there might be a way inside this time, was seeing through the windows that much of the baseboard trim had been removed and stacked, and the kitchen island was gone.

As I explored the interior, I was impressed to see that only the salvageable items had been taken and no signs of scrapping. While the house will be demolished in time, this developer is attempting to reuse as much of the old house as possible for future projects. The trim has been taken off of the windows, suggesting that they’ll be taken out for reuse. Down in the recroom the carpet is soaked with water and emanating a pungent odor.

The back yard offers a nice shaded hut where one could read books.

The name of this location comes from the mix of natural gas smell and putrid basement odor from a watersoaked carpet. House has since been demolished (Summer 2024)

This house was purchased by a development company with the intention to build townhouses. In a somewhat ironic turn of events, the past owner of this house led a petition by area residents to oppose new townhouses on the other side of her street. As the petition was made around 2021, this house has been vacant for no more than three years.

In the bedroom I discovered a box filled with hundreds of photographs from Ontario vacations taken in the early 2000’s. The oldest item found was a newspaper dated 1980. Given the vibrant wallpaper, I’m thinking this was the original owner. I know her name and occupation was, but won’t disclose it at this time.

I tried three times to access this house, all of the windows and doors were locked. On my next road trip to this area I noticed a pane of glass outside the front door. I thought it might be a sign of the developer removing salvageable items and so I went back to try again. I turned the garage door handle and it opened!

Demolished as of August 2024, which is why I took photos of the Polaroids!

June 2024 Revisit

The developer has secured the property however someone broke a side window which allowed for access.

In 2017 the school board that this school falls under, announced that the school would close after the 2022 year. The students would be sent to a newly built school (built at a cost of $9 million). The school board had been having difficulty finding land for the new school and had been considing reopening this one.

The cost to reopen would be approximately $900,000 for furniture, $670,000 for expenses and approximately $500,000 for a new sewer system. It currently remains locked up and the alarm is on. It’s a popular location for people to walk their dogs. On my visit here, I observed a couple sunbathing under a tree.

The gym is in complete darkness and without a tripod, or seeing an immediate light switch, there was no way to photograph it.