This house has had several owners over the last few decades. Most notably, a woman named Rebecca who came to Canada in 1974 with very little money, not knowing how to speak English and having no job prospect.

The Story

Rebecca had never been able to make her own decisions. At age 22 she’d never been on a date, had no privacy and had few social interactions. On her last day of medical school she passed by the American embassy who rejected her, so she tried the Canadian embassy on the other side of the street to inquire about becoming an immigrant.

Rebecca left her parents a letter and fled to Canada. She had studied at medical school in her homeland of Yugoslavia but found that her medical education was not recognized in Canada. She found work as a secretary while attending night classes to learn English.

Rebecca met her husband in 1979 who was a door-to-door salesman.

In 1989, Rebecca read that Canada was deregulating the energy sector. Seeing this as an opportunity, she went to the library to research buying and selling natural gas. She founded an energy company. Sadly her husband passed away in a car accident around the time she earned her first million.

She’s estimated to have made $150,000,000 since 2001. Besides owning this property, Rebecca also owns a $20 million beachside villa in the Dominican Republic and a Porsche.

In 2001 the house was purchased for $5,050,000 by Rebecca’s two children – Daniel and Alexandra. In May of 2021 the house was sold for $15,480,000.

The House

Downstairs is a large walk in wine cellar capable of holding hundreds of bottles. There’s also a gym and a billiard room.

On the main floor are several rooms – any one of which could serve as a living room. In the eastern portion of the house is a grand ballroom with a full wall mural. There’s a wet bar just off of the ball room area. A glass-lined corridor at the rear of the house connects the ball room with the rest of the house. Several doors lead from the corridor out to the back yard and garden. Just off of the grand ball room is the kitchen area. There’s another kitchen in the upstairs area.

There are at least five fireplaces, billiard room, study, elaborate plaster crown mouldings, and hand painted ceiing murals. There are 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and a private tennis court as well.

April 2022: Please note that the house now has owners, and is not accessible.

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This large Tudor mansion is located in the Greater Toronto Area.

The four bedroom, six bathroom house was built in 1983 in Tudor architectural style. It was last occupied by a family named the Wang’s. Their house still contains many of the family’s possessions such as televisions, VCR’s, books, drones and framed paintings. It’s also been alleged that there were three fur coats which have since ‘disappeared’.

A Vaughan property developer purchased the land and surrounding houses with the intention to build fifty new homes. The price range of the homes is estimated to start at $3.4 million. The company’s timeline states the construction should be completed by 2024. The last listed price of this house was $2.1 million. One can assume that the property owner was thrown buckets of cash to sell.

Unfortunately as the housing market continues to explode, this will be more commonplace. For the urban explorer however, it means more untapped properties to document before their inevitable demolition.

House is now demolished.

Giles Gorton Unsworth, his wife Anna, and their nine children emigrated to Canada from England on November 18, 1848. They originally landed in the United States but weren’t welcomed by Americans, who held a low opinion of Britain. The Unsworth’s chose to settle in Ontario, Canada instead.

The youngest son Albert was the proprietor of a ‘fancy goods store’ – where gifts and clothing accessories were sold. In 1882 Albert purchased property which had been known as the Long Farm. The land was situated on the northern and southern sides of Plains Road. Albert later purchased a tavern which was relocated to the back yard to be used as a workspace. Once in his backyard, the tavern was used for hand-operated knitting machines where women and girls made stockings and other items to be sold in the store.

The family home was built in 1932 in NeoTudor style. The house contained four bedrooms and two bathrooms. It featured a wooden staircase with newel post, beveled glass doors,  hardwood floors and crown molding. There was a two-storey octagonal bay with crenellated parapet (think of the top of a Gothic castle).

The fridge found in the home today is the original 1930’s Frigidaire model and the stove appears to be the original as well.

Albert’s youngest son George established a successful business on the farmland. George purchased an additional 13 acres of land to grow tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. He initially used cold frame buildings to germinate his plants. In 1900, a greenhouse was added to the property to allow for year-round growing. The tomatoes that George grew were able to command high prices. George was commissioned to supply tomatoes for the royal train when the King and Queen of England visited in 1939. Over 1500 tons of coal were used to heat the greenhouses throughout the year while water was pumped in from Hamilton.

After Albert moved to Hamilton, his son took over the farming. The son began growing assorted vegetables. In time the greenhouse production switched to flowers. Flower production continued in the greenhouses into the 1980’s. Today only one greenhouse remains, in poor condition.

In 2013, the owner of the property requested that the property be removed from the list of Heritage Properties. The request was denied.

The house is valued at approximately $3,000,000.

Helen Johnston was the wife of William Watson Ogilvie. Ogilvie was a successful businessman who had made a fortune in the grain trade with his business, Ogilvie Flour Mills.

In April 1892, William purchased the 180 acre Sommerville farm. The farm included a half-mile of St.Lawrence shoreline. Today the area is known as Lasalle.

William hired well-known Montreal architect A.C. Hutchinson, to plan and build an English-American Queen Anne style mansion on the land facing the rapids, and to distinguish it by using wood instead of stone materials for its structure. Stables and Barns were added to shelter his racing horses and his cherished Ayershire cows. The country estate was completed in 1893 and became the family’s summer residence. The house was adorned with beautiful paintings and works of art.

Their summer retreat became a popular place for Montreal’s dignitaries and celebrities to attend. The family’s primary residence was the Rosemount House, located in Montreal.

William Ogilvie died on Jan 12th, 1900, leaving all of his land and possessions to his family. Upon his death, the Ogilvie mansion fell into disuse for a period of time. In 1910, it was sold by the Ogilvie family to the Ross Realty Company.

Around 1935, the Ogilvie Mansion became the LaSalle Golf Club. In 1944, the estate and the 18 hole golf course were sold to Lasalle’s famous Alepin family. The family rented the land and the house to the Lasalle Golf Club.

Several renovations were made to the mansion including a large Lasalle Golf Club emblem on the floor in the front lobby. The golf club ceased operations in 1970. A caretaker (Jean-Paul Laramée) was assigned to watch over the property, a position he held until July of 1980.

The city of Lasalle expropriated the land and proposed demolishing the property to create a new road and park. The property was designated as a National Heritage site, thus saving it from demolition.
Sadly the mansion burned down due to an act of arson.

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This house is located not far from the GTA area. It features three garages, four bedrooms, five bathrooms and a basement recreation room with bar area. In the eastern side of the house is an indoor pool area with workout equipment area.

The house is modern from ceiling to floor, with an estimated value of $2.7 million dollars.

A snowstorm was forecast on the day I visited this house. There was no snow on the ground when I entered this house but by the time time I left, a small layer of snow had begun to accumulate on the ground.

The house listings have no sale value, except a monthly rental fee of $3400. The house was sold in November of 2018.

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This property was nominated for a Heritage Property Designation in November of 2018. When the property was sold in June of 2019, an application was made to demolish the property to make room for two new houses.

Neighbours were opposed to the demolition, which would destroy mature trees on the property. On July 16, 2020 the Toronto and East York Community Council agreed to include the property in Toronto’s Heritage Register.

The property, located in Forest Hill, was originally owned by philanthropist Lady Edith J. Baillie, widow of Sir Frank Baillie, an industrialist who played a significant role in the establishment of the Canadian steel industry.

It is situated on a double lot and is representative of an Arts and Crafts movement house with Tudor Revival–style details. The house was completed in 1930 and was designed by architect Douglas E. Kertland.

This property was listed for sale at $5,895,000. It’s completely stripped inside right down to the studs. Real estate photos are shown below.

Photos taken during my visit

This property sits opposite a gated community in urban Ontario. I found the house’s appearance to be somewhat bewildering. It doesn’t look like a home, given the unusual layout of the inside and the industrial doors outside. Is it possible that this was used for something like an art gallery?

The most fascinating part of the property is at the very back of it, tucked away past the garage. It’s a complete living area that’s 100% untouched. There’s a huge mold infestation which makes it uninhabitable. Is this what led to the family fleeing and not taking their possessions?

The kitchen appliances are left behind and various pieces of art lay on the floor. The living room appears like any living room would – photographs upon the fireplace mantle, two couches, a reading lamp, and a large screen television. There’s a terrible amount of black mold in this room also. I believe the family was of Asian descent.

The living section opens to the garage, where an SUV is stored with outdated plates (I believe 2019?). The garage section is connected to the remainder of the house by a curved hallway (shown below) with windows facing the outside. You then enter another kitchen, which I presume was part of the original house design. That area is then connected to the front of the house by a glass lined hallway with peaked ceiling.

In one of the bedrooms, a child’s laptop and printer remain on her desk. The bed is made up, various toys and clothes fill her closet, two ballerina figurines are on top of her desk. There are assorted magazines in the desk, and a coin bank. This appears all so wrong – an entire family’s belongings left behind without any reason.

The property was bought by power of sale for $3,000,800 in 2020. It was then placed back onto the market which I will assume would be for the land only.

2022 Revisit

The van that had sat in the garage was gone, replaced by a riding lawn mower.

In the kitchen there is now a microwave and a cooking pot that weren’t there before. We also found toilet paper in every single room. Perhaps they knew of my road trip bowel habits?

I learned that the property had been purchased in 2020 for $3 million from a power of sale. This means the former occupants failed to pay the mortgage. I’m inclined to think that perhaps they went back to Asia.

One interesting detail… the family photos from the fireplace mantle have been removed and paintings have been put in their place. Perhaps someone was staging?

This property has not one, not two but three kitchens in it. It’s possible that this was a home designed for multiple tenants or family. Some of the features are two spiral staircases, skylights and four garages (two at each end of the house).

The basement is flooded and not accessible. Several areas of the main floor ceiling have collapsed, suggesting long term water leakage.

The property value is $2.1 million and the house was built in 1986. For now, the property remains empty and awaiting possible demolition.

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