This was the home of Major General Clarence Churchill Mann. Mann purchased 16 farms in an area of Ontario known today as Joker’s Hill. Mann was a World War II soldier who had taken part in the Dieppe raid and invasion of Normandy. He along with his wife consolidated the land into a horse farm that included a race track, barns and pasture area.

The property was sold in 1969 to the wealthy Koffler family who owned the popular chain of Shopper’s Drug Mart stores.  They retained noted architect Napier Simpson to expand and remodel the estate house, first built by the Manns. Pierre Trudeau has even stayed at this mansion as have Prince Phillip and Princess Margaret

The property was used by the family seasonally until they chose to donate the entire parcel of the University of Toronto in 1995. The property is now used for nature studies. The surrounding land is active, and you should avoid being on it due to the environmental studies that take place. There are cameras and the police will ticket you if you park nearby.

Note: The mansion has since been demolished to keep people from entering this sensitive environmental space.

Technology is making it easier to find abandoned properties. With Google Satellite view for example, one can scout out remote buildings, overgrown yards and derelict vehicles. This house is an example of how technology can be used to seek out new places. It stands out from its neighbours with a slightly dirtier driveway and an overgrown tennis court out back.

The house has an attached three car garage. Many of the floors are hard wood and the dining room features French doors. In the basement you’ll discover a unique bar, and a hot tub. The electricity works, for now – demolition is imminent.

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This house was originally hidden in a forested area of a large city.

I spoke to the real estate company who was developing the area and they confirmed that the property wouldn’t be demolished. Furthermore the realtor granted us permission to explore the property and to take photographs. Some of you might feel this isn’t ‘urban exploring’ but the alternative was to wait until someone broke in and potentially trashed the place.

In September of 2014 I explored the inside, meeting the realtor outside of the house. He unlocked the door and left – asking me to lock the door behind me. On the long weekend someone kicked in the door, though no damage was caused.

I thought that the house would be too far outdated to ever be able to be sold. As you can see from the before and after photos, Sifton Properties did a fantastic job of modernizing this beauty.

History

The property was originally owned by John Doyl who was granted the land in 1820. Mr. Doyl sold the 200 acres of land in 1822 to John O’Neil. Eventually the property made its way to James Williams Junior who, in 1871, built a home on the property. James Williams and his father purchased other lots of land in what is now London’s downtown district.

Mr. Williams gave up his career as a blacksmith to work as a farmer (presumably on the same land). He died in 1895 and left part of the farm to his five children.

In 1897 the northern part of the property was purchased by Thomas Brown who rented out the house and farm. The property went through four more owners, the last being Joe and Thelma Scott who owned and farmed the land from 1966 until 2006.

I paid a revisit to this property in August of 2020. It’s no longer a sole house in the middle of a muddy area and roads still being made to allow construction vehicles access. It’s now a fully developed subdivision with streets of homes and families.

A happy ending.

After Sifton Properties renovations

This house was built by a family who moved to the area shortly after the American Revolution (they were United empire loyalists from New York State). The back part where the kitchen is was the first part built and the front Georgian style section a couple decades later. The land was taken from a small Native tribe who were forced into labour by the original home builders, as there was a brick factory behind the house (the house was made entirely out of bricks built on the property and we used to find arrowheads all over the back yard. The two little sheds in the field beside the house were where some of the workers lived).

It was last lived in by my grandmother, Joan B. while her mother, Kathleen Hannagan-B. was in the hospital where she eventually passed away in 2010. When my great grandmother passed away, her will was altered by my great uncle who is a lawyer, and instead of the house going to my grandmother it went to her sister who has since emptied and left it.

In the late 70’s that a man who used to keep some old cars on the house’s property was found deceased in the old shack in the field. The family let him use the shacks to store his car parts and he would fix them up out there but apparently one day they saw him arrive and when he didn’t leave for home. After a while they got curious and found him sat in his chair in the shack. The causes were natural as he was very elderly.

This house is remarkable for it’s use of wood paneled doors and wide door trim. The owners live about an hour away so your only concern would be passers by and the people who tend to the property. I don’t want to see this house become stripped, it’s lasted several years possibly due to it’s isolation and “lived in” look.

At the time of my visit to this beautiful mansion in the Caledon area, this house was vacant. The start of my journey took a downward spiral as I slipped and fell in the muddy puddle at the start of the driveway. After wiping off my lens, I made my way to this house. It did not disappoint.

There’s a three car garage, guest house and the main house which appears to have had extensions built onto it. The interior had three fire places and a winding staircase.

Last I heard, the house was being lived in again. These photos are from 2012 and due to losing the original copies in a hard drive crash, I have only these smaller images to show.

May 2022 update : I returned ten years later for new photos and found the property is being used as a marijuana grow operation. There are plants outside. The doors and windows have been covered in plastic. Several vehicles on site.

This location was a bit of a mystery. Inside, the furnishings had been wrapped up with tarps as if painting were taking place. The front entrance showed signs of water damage. This location has more of a lived-in feeling than of being abandoned.

None the less, it was a fascinating property to urban explore.

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Just to be clear, this property isn’t abandoned. It’s for sale. And yes, we urban explored it 🙂

The house features a three car garage, four bedrooms, loft above the garage. The dining room has oak paneling, oak doors, wainscoting and a custom oak staircase.

The entrance just to the right of the garage opens into the turret, the pointed roof section that you can see in the first photo.

These photos were taken by hand, no tripod.

 

As we approached this location, I did the customary drive by to scope it out. We parked down the street and I walked in alone first, so it would be less conspicuous. I went around back and found an open door. Once inside I texted my partner to come on in.

The kitchen has a somewhat aged look, with an old analog drum clock display stove (before digital clocks). The floor has many droppings of what appears to be mice poop. It’s evident that this house hasn’t been lived in for quite some time. In the photo of the dining room table you can see a significant amount of dirt on the floor. I observed cobwebs in the dining room (as seen in the video). Next to the kitchen counter is a small seating area with a wooden table.

The stove and appliances aren’t modern but they aren’t decades old either. I’d estimate perhaps from the 1990’s. There are dishes and cutlery to be found in the cupboards. 

As was common in older homes, there are room-to-room intercoms which served as today’s texting device for sending “come to supper” messages.

Perhaps half an hour into this exploration, my exploring partners told me that they were heading back to the car. Apparently the house was a little too modern for their tastes and I suspected they were nervous exploring the house. This detail will be important shortly.

I worked my way upstairs. In the master bedroom, I discovered a huge colonial bed (discovered? It had been there all along so I didn’t actually discover it). There were several pizza boxes on the bed which might have suggested that a squatter had been living here. Another explorer who’d previously explored this house, said that during his visit, he heard someone go hide in a closet. Whomever was staying here was not present when we visited, or if they were, made no sound.

Now at this point of the tale, I heard a banging as someone was trying the front door. “Okay, my explore partner has come back and wants in the front door”, I thought. Fortunately I heard the noise. If I were in the pool area, I’d have not been able to hear it.

I looked down to observe someone peering in through the front window next to the door as he tried the door handle. My heart went through my chest. It wasn’t my exploring friend. I managed to take one last photo of the immaculate bedroom below as I made my swift exit.

Here’s an approximate version of the conversation that transpired:

Me: “Hi.”
Him: “What are you doing here?”
Me: “I’m taking photos of the house, it’s my hobby.”
“This is private property.”
Me: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that anyone lived here.”
“They don’t.”
Me: “Is this your property?”
“Yes.”
Me: “Where are the occupants?”
“They’re overseas for now.”
Me: “Oh I didn’t know.”
“Do you have a business card?”
Me: “No”
“Do you have any ID?”
Me:  (searching my pockets) “No it’s out in the car”
“Do you live near around here?”
Me: “No, I’m from (city)”

He mentioned a few times that this was ‘wrong’ and didn’t understand why someone would want to take photos of his old house.  The man wasn’t angry but he was concerned. He mentioned that the screens from two windows were on the ground and asked, “Would your fingerprints be on them?” to which I replied, “No. I didn’t break in.” This was the truth.

The conversation went on for a few minutes. Usually these conversations end with the person advising you to leave, and you part ways.The man then said, “I have to call someone.”

Now I’m not the type of person to run. I much prefer to have a civil conversation, take some verbal heat and part ways. This conversation wasn’t heading that route. The man wasn’t going to let it slide. So with that, I pushed in my tripod legs and began to walk out to the front of the house. I turned around once to observe him filming me with his camera.

I wondered if someone had phoned him, possibly having seen us go into the driveway. Not wanting him to see the car’s licence plate, I walked down the street as if heading to a side street. I looked back to see him following me on the other side of the road. “Why are you following me?”, I asked with a mix of annoyance and concern.

Realizing that this wasn’t going to end well, I decided the best approach was to walk to the car where my two companions were waiting on the curb. I said, “Get the F-in the car” and tossed my gear into the back seat. As I pulled away, the man inevitably took a photo of the car. And that’s the last that I saw or heard of the incident.

So is this house actually abandoned? No.

It, like so many others, has an owner who happens to not be residing in it at the moment. This property has an overgrown driveway. A shutter is dangling beside a window. There are significant mouse droppings and cobwebs inside of it. You could easily take it for an ‘abandoned’ property.

However is anything truly abandoned? If you don’t own it, the bank does.

P.S. There’s the slim possibility that the man who appeared at the front door was a concerned neighbour rather than owner, and the person he said he “had to call” was the real owner. I say this because the man didn’t attempt to open the front door with a key.

The house falls under the umbrella definition of ‘abandoned’ that we use in urban exploration.

This property was once owned by Doctor Frank Van Bork. Frank and his wife Elisa came to Canada from Holland during the 1950’s. They settled down in Southern Ontario and started a family of three children.

Frank ran a successful business that sold specialty lighting. His wife, Elisa, assisted him with the business which operated from the basement of the house.

Frank allegedly controlled the family finances and made all the financial decisions. By 1984,  Elisa had enough of the thirty-one year marriage and sought legal counsel for a divorce. Elisa had sought prior legal advice but the previous lawyer allowed those proceedings to come to a halt. At this time Elisa was receiving $2,250 per month but Frank was not permitting her access to assets that were in her own name. Frank’s attitude was that anything that had his wife’s signature on it, was being held in trust for himself.

Despite Elisa’s working for the couple’s business,  declaring half the business income on her taxes, Frank refused to share any of the income from the lighting business with her.

Frank changed the locks on a recreational property that Elisa owned. When she attempted to gain access to the unoccupied property, he phoned the police claiming that a break and enter had taken place. The police spoke with Elisa but the investigation stopped when they learned that it was Elisa who owned the property and had made entry.

When the court ordered him to produce his tax returns so that Elisa could establish his assets, he submitted blank tax returns with only his name and signature. The case took six years (and fifteen court orders) to proceed to trial, with Frank attempting to stall the proceedings as long as possible.

Frank was trying to force Elisa to drop the proceedings by drawing out the process in an effort to cost her as much money as possible. Elisa’s lawyer continued to work the case even when Elisa was no longer financially able to pay for legal services.

In November of 1992 the case was heard in court. The judge felt that Frank’s assets were worth at least $2 million at the initial time of separation and by the time of the trial, at least $4 million. The judge ordered Elisa to receive $1.8 million and a monthly support payment of $3,500 for life. Frank was also ordered to pay just over $400,000 for Elisa’s legal costs.

I believe that the wife took ownership of the mansion and the ex-husband took ownership of the recreational property.

The wife passed away in 2015 and the large estate was put up for sale.

The house has six bedrooms and six bathrooms. It features a spacious back yard and in-ground swimming pool. From the ‘before’ photos you can see that this was a house to be proud of.

The property was listed in 2018 for sale at just over $6 and a half million dollars. You can write the rest of the story. It was bought by a property developer for $4.8 million.

Natural decay has begun to set in. The floors are buckling in places and the ceiling has begun to fall apart as humidity builds. Some of the lighting has been stripped out.

You can see photos from when the house was occupied and had warmth. 

The asking price of the house was $6 million, it sold for close to $5 million and my video erroneously says $4,000,000. So if you’re confused as to the property’s worth, I don’t blame you. 🙂

Research by TWP.
Source: Fairly Equal: Lawyering the Feminist Revolution By Linda Silver Dranoff

Video

A vacant house in Southern Ontario with a mural of a desert scene painted in the dining room. There’s a large sun room in the back that overlooks the backyard in-ground pool. There’s no vandalism here, just some signs that the property may be used as an occasional drinking site.

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