Talking Walls Photography

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.

Not much to say about this house other than it was purchased by a development company and will be torn down for new housing. Inside a box are some school binders from someone who was studying in the medical field.

The house was demolished in summer 2024.

This property contained a few businesses including a distributor of consumer goods and a mattress store. It’s largely gutted now and most of the contents have been scattered outside. One day I decided to satisfy my curiosity and went inside mainly to shoot some video for you – the viewer. I was inside for approximately 20 minutes when I observed a truck pull up next to my vehicle. The truck had been parked behind a gate, and I commented on the video that I expected I’d be caught.

Just before I noticed the truck, I’d found a metal box filled with several 35 mm photo slides.

The owner wasn’t sure what to expect of me, but I quickly reassured him that I meant no harm. The man was polite but did insist that I leave. He said that he was in the process of securing the property. And sure enough, the next day there were boards on the front doors.

Fast forward to about a week later. I’ve always been interested in old slides, because they tell a tale of life before social media where everything one does today is put on the internet. They date back to prior eras that fascinate me. I wonder what happened to the people in the photos, are they still alive? I marvel over the retro decorum of the houses.

This week I passed by the property and noticed that the truck was back in front of the building and the door barricades had been removed. I did something that I’ve not done before. I pulled into the lot and asked the man if he remembered me. He didn’t initially as he said that he’s had to chase several people off the property. Some of them are scrappers, some are looking for things to steal, and some even claim to own the property. In fact someone had been back to break through the doors that I’d seen barricaded with plywood.

I was straight to the point. I explained that there were some slides inside that I’d be interested in scanning in for historical purposes. The man initially said that he couldn’t part with anything as it was part of his family’s estate that had to be settled. I presume his parents had passed away leaving the property behind. I said that I’d like to purchase the slides. This changed his disposition and he asked me how much? I made him an offer and with that, he went inside and retreived the slides.

I can publish these images to you, with the permission of the former owner. I told him that if I found anything of interest on the slides, I’d let him know – and I joked that hopefully there were no nudes. I believe that the people shown in the images would be the man’s parents.

This house was built in 1952. In 2016, it sold for $1.1 million. In 2018, a capital company acquired the property utilizing a mortgage taken out through Building Development and Mortgages Canada. They planned to build a new subdivision on the land along with two other adjacent properties that were purchased. The town committee would not allow primary road access from the main road to the proposed development which meant that access would have to come from the north. In January of 2021 the borrower listed the properties for sale citing that they had no funds to continue with the subdivision development.

The other two properties can be seen here and here.