The History

In the year 1930, Guido Cinelli was born In Italy. He emigrated to Canada in 1953 with nothing more than $25 to his name and some clothes. Guido found work in a bakery that employed four other employees. Guido worked 110 hours per week and allegedly slept on skids of flour in the bakery. Over the next two decades years, Guido worked his way up to the position of master baker. He helped grow the bakery into one of the largest in Canada.

By the time Guido was 41 years old, he’d started his own company distributing bakery equipment in Toronto as a part-time venture. By 1972, he was officially incorporated as an operating business. He was married to wife Lidia and had two sons (one being Albert) and two daughters.

Today his company manufactures bakery machinery that includes rack ovens, revolving ovens, automated production lines and a variety of mixers. The equipment can be programmed according to the customer’s needs, eliminating costly employee training. The companies products are distributed around the globe.

Albert passed away in 2014. I found it unusual that for a man who founded such a large successful company, that there was very little information or tributes when he passed away. I’m also keeping in mind, it’s a priviledge not a right to be able to research these stories in the first place. As for his wife Lidia, I could find no history on her except for several employment ads from 2024 where she was looking for a home healthcare worker.

The House

This brings us to the house that sits on 24 acres of land. I could find no history on the house prior to purchase by the Cinelli’s. It was likely built during the 1990’s for them. By looking through the house, it’s evident that someone had mobility issues (I’m assuming Lidia). The items include an accessible bathtub, toilet safety rail, and instructions for a specific diet.

The house features a double set of garages on each side of the house. The rear of the house opens out to an upper balcony overlooking the back of the home. The front of the house has an upper balcony above the front entrance. The house is located along a busy highway, which doesn’t offer much privacy.

There is a beautiful wooden staircase leading to the upper floor that wraps around to encompass the upper floor.

In 2000, an application was filed to request a new lot on the property.

Albert passed away in 2014. His son Albert now oversees Sales and Marketing of the family business. As for Lidia, her whereabouts remain a mystery. The house sold in September of 2021 for $14.7 million to a corporation. I can’t name the company as it would reveal the address. It will be demolished of course to accomodate the housing market.

During my exploration, I observed a white SUV slowly pull up to the house. I thought it might be other explorers, and carried on my exploration. The SUV later left, and then came back. At this time I decided it was time to exit the house. As I peeked out the window, I saw two women exit the vehicle and shake hands with a worker wearing a reflective vest who had arrived in his own vehicle. With no way to make it to my vehicle without being seen, I walked to my vehicle and made no contact with the trio. As I left, one of the women waved her cell phone at me as if to say, “I have you on video.” You can watch how it went from there, in the video.

These videos were taken with an Android phone.

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(I realize now I was saying, “I’m just taking pictures” where it shows as unintelligible on the dash cam)

This house is situated in Toronto and was built in 1994, a year after the land was purchased. The owner sold it around 2000 and the home went through three more sales before the final sale which took place in August 2022 for $3.7 million. The house has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

The master bedroom features a bathroom with a walk in shower, tub, two sinks and a fireplace. The bedroom also has two walk in closets.

This location made its way around the urbex scene in spring of 2024. Some explorers called it ‘abandoned’ which was a stretch of the imagination. Given the lock box on the front door, the hydro working, and a public hearing this month for a minor variance to build an addition to the property – this is anything but ‘abandoned’.

Keep in mind this is private property.

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The family that used to live here fled their homeland to escape their country’s dictator. They arrived in Canada in 1975. They acquired an adhesives company and a Canadian company from the east coast that produces fireplace logs (the type that you light with a match). The couple had never seen snow before and felt that fire logs would be beneficial for home heating. They sold the fire log company in 2006, at which time they held nearly the entire Canadian market and approximately half of the American market.

The family helped other immigrants with their businesses and also ran their own companies, which manufactured consumer products. They also purchased struggling companies, made them successful again, and then sold them off. The 77-year-old husband is a multi-millionaire and has used much of his fortune to help new entrepreneurs. Today their manufacturing companies have been sold off, and the son looks after the family’s numerous investments in real estate.

It’s not uncommon for people to seek a visit with their family in order to request startup funding. The family says there are too many people to be able to handle all of the requests. The family has contributed to many good causes.

The original house on the property was constructed in 1964 and replaced with this one in 2007. It was replaced with this monstrosity beautiful property. The house was designed in a French style with upper French balconies. Some of the luxuries include two outdoor tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, a five-car garage, and a large open-floor oval circle. There are countless bathrooms and two walk-in closets the size of a small apartment.

The house was sold in 2022 for $19,200,000 to a numbered company, which in my opinion means purchase by a development corporation.

The Exploration

I felt that this would be a difficult exploration due to the upscale houses and watchful neighbours. I had planned to trek in from behind the house, but noticing the front gate was open, parked down the road and walked in the front. I was undisturbed for the duration of my visit.

The eastern portion of the house consists of the garage. The main entrance opens into a large open space and hallways leading east and west. I can only describe this house as a complete waste of space. I say this because it appears to me that rooms were just thrown together without any consideration for practicality.

For example the main entrance area with the ceiling full moon opening is just space without purpose.

A lone piano for the room off from the entrance?

There’s an office den but also two rooms with fireplaces that could also be used as office space on the main floor. The upstairs view down to the main floor is surrounded by book cases which makes it inpractical to view. If you wanted to sit and read a book you’d have to be cramped between the bookcase and a wall.

Perhaps the most useful room of all is the bathroom, with it’s half globe window, two sinks, huge tub and shower. The kitchen is somewhat practical in that it has two marble countertops and two sinks so you can do plenty of cooking. Off from the kitchen is another room that could serve as a wine room and another inexplicably placed sink.

The back eastern portion of the house contains the indoor pool, which is absolutely gigantic. There’s a room off from the pool with a sauna. Down in the basement is a bar that appears quite antiquated. The bar’s surface looks like 1970’s leather and the studs embedded into it only reinforce that. There’s a large wine cellar in the basement, a cold room, movie room and yet another kitchen.

I’ve explored multi-million dollar mansions and enjoy seeing these extravagent houses. At the same time, lifestyles like this only disgust me. This property might look like a home from the outside, but I didn’t get any feeling of home from the interior. Your opinion may vary.

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This house was built in 1968.

The last owners were a husband (dentist) and his wife (an architect). A family member purchased the house in 1994. In 2011, ownership was transferred to the dentist. In 2021, the property was purchased by a condominium developer for $6.2 million. You can guess what will happen to this house next.

The property includes an outdoor pool, gym, spa and tennis court. The house is situated along a precarious ravine.

Photos didn’t turn out whatsoever on this trip. I refer to it as the 700 pixel write off day.

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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

DSLR Photos

YouTube

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.

Canon Photos

Cell Phone Photography

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This house was built in 1977 and features 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The house is situated in an area of Ontario known for luxury homes. The house had a series of short-term ownerships. By 2011 it was being lived in by a Mr. Mark V. H.

In 2012 the house was sold for $1,500,000. Then just three years later in 2015, it sold for $1,950,000. The house was then vacated between 2016 and 2019 and the owner attempted to rent out the property. By 2019 the property was falling into disrepair. Finally, in April of 2023 it was purchased for $3 million I believe by a Stephanie Saccoccia.

The house has been reported to be worth $9,000,000 by other urban explorers claiming it was once owned by a wealthy casino owner. There’s zero evidence to suggest this is true while the real estate records indicate the price was never close to that amount. Mark V. H. owned a Canadian Tire store for 20 years. The only mention of a casino is a single sentence about how one of the sons played poker at a summer cottage. 🙂

The house has the appearance of 70’s vibe, particularly Clockwork Orange the movie. The stairs leading to the upper floor in particular are representative of the spacious designs of the 70’s era. Perhaps there is too much space, for the house has an almost cold industrial feel to it.

On the upside, there are several walkouts, hardwood floors, and a basement wet bar. As for who’s tending to the grass, I can only surmise the neighbour or new owner.

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I’d been doing some research on abandoned properties and happened across an address for a vacant house in the Toronto area. I added the house to our exploration itinerary but what I didn’t realize was that right around the corner from it, were three large vacant properties. To find one of these luxurious properties is a great addition to your photography day, but three in a row is unheard of.

It would take a return visit to explore the three large homes that we missed that day… or try to.

As it would turn out, after we exiting the first house, we found the CEO of the development company was on the property. The man explained that due to liability reasons, we couldn’t explore inside the houses. He said that he’d wait though for us to take exterior photos.

For this reason, only one house is documented. When we returned, we’d found that the man had locked all three of the houses. To make matters worse, one of the people in my group had forgotten his camera lenses inside the now locked house.

The area is going to become close to 80 townhouses. The developer says the houses will be renovated. As for the lenses, the explorer had written them off. I contacted the developer and after some back and forth communication, they were returned to the explorer.

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This extravagant mansion is located at 68 The Bridle Path in Toronto. It was built upon two properties that were combined into one creating nearly 30,000 square feet of land. The mansion was constructed in 1985 for real estate developer and financier, Robert Campeau.

During the 1980s, Campeau undertook several leveraged buyouts of businesses including shopping malls. Due to a downturn in retail sales, the debts taken on through several of these aquisitions were unable to be met. As a result, over 250 profitable department stores were bankrupted. (1)

Mr, Campeau was forced to sell this house in 1990 although the house was in his wife’s name which protected it from creditors.

Various deals to purchase the property fell through over the next six years. The property was purchased by Harold and Sara Springer in 2002. The Springers spent the next several years restoring the property. They enlisted the help of architect Gordon Ridgely, interior designer Brian Gluckstein, and landscape architect Ronald Holbrook, to restore the property. 

The property has been said to have once been the most expensive home in Canada and the most expensive in Toronto.

The home was blessed by Toronto archbishop Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter. Some of the guests of the home have included Pierre Trudeau and Jane Fonda. The house has been used for movie production including Beau Bridges’ ‘Kissinger and Nixon’, ‘That Old Feeling’ starring Bette Midler, and ‘It Takes Two’ with the Olsen twins, Kirstie Alley and Steve Guttenberg. 

Entry to the property is through a set of wrought-iron gates and down a circular driveway with a water fountain in the center of it.

The mansion contains 10 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms (including his and hers). There’s a large indoor pool with a retractable floor that converts into a ballroom, library, tennis court, gourmet kitchen, seven wood burning fireplaces, recording studio, vault room and a wine cellar. There’s also an elevator to get to each of the four floors. It’s also been reported that the tap faucets are solid gold. The garage will hold 40 cars.

The grand living room contains tall doors leading out to the terrace. The placement of clocks and paintings and traditional hand-sculpted carvings in the walls and ceilings, were all part of the effort to design the house as a 17th century France chateau. The Springers looked across the globe for 17th century art to add to the home.

The mansion has seen some well known guests including Jane Fonda and the former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Don’t worry about parking as you can fit well over 40 vehicles on the grounds.

The gated property has also been featured in several motion pictures including “It Takes Two”. After the couple’s children grew up and left home, the house was put up on the market in 2015. It was finally purchased in 2020 by a company named Nascond but no updates have taken place on the property.

As of late July 2022 demolition equipment has been brought to the site. This is the only reason I’m disclosing the address. Note: By providing specific details such as notable guests, it’s almost impossible not to reveal the address anyways.

Basement

In one corner of the basement you’ll find a bar constructed with oak. Several hallways will take through a collection of doorways. Behind one door is a wine cellar made up of tubes embedded into cement where the wine bottles would be inserted. One of the allocations is for a “1984 Chardonnay.”

Some rooms are used for storage. A large utility room contains the pool plumbing system and large hydro boxes. Another room contains a large safe inside of it with an alarm panel on the outside of the room.

Tucked away in the basement is a recording studio with a red light outside the door. Inside the studio are sound proofing tiles lining the walls. When you were recording music, you’d turn on the red light so people wouldn’t interrupt you. This studio was used by Robert Campeau’s son for recording music. A listing for the house mentions it has a theater, but I couldn’t find one during my explore.

A large walk-in freezer would most certainly have held steaks and burgers for those large social gatherings.

Bomb Shelter

Down in the basement there’s a bomb shelter with a living room, dormitory and its own power generator. 

Main Floor

The kitchen features two sinks, marble countertops, two ovens, microwave and a large stove. A room in back of the kitchen contains a third sink, dish washer and elevator.

At the main entrance are the his and hers washrooms just off to the left. Through the limestone front foyer is a large room with a fireplace and the stairs leading up to the bedrooms. This room looks more like a waiting room as it really has to purpose but to make a decision as to which doorway to take. Should you continue further to the rear of the house, you’ll come to the grand living room with pink walls. There are several sets of doors here that will take you to the garden in the back of the property.

Taking a left from the waiting area will take you to a small corridor. Here you’ll find the library with a fireplace and an elegantly carved mantle. At the end of the corridor is the 50 foot swimming pool. The hallway outside of the pool is painted to look like a French marketplace. In the pool room are a set of spiral stairs that will take you up to the master bedroom. Three sets of doors exit into the back yard.

Upper Level

The master bedroom has its own bathroom with bidet. There’s a large circular stained glass window in the bathroom. The bedroom features a fireplace as well as an adjoining room which looks like it could be for office space. Of course there’s a walk in closet with ceiling to floor mirrors. The square footage of the master bedroom is comparable to that of an apartment rental.

August 6, 2022 Demolition

Real Estate Photos

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Source:
1) https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/17/opinion/robert-campeau-s-special-genius.html