This house was owned by John Patrick Sheridan. Mr. Sheridan graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in geophysical engineering. He became a prospector and mine developer in Northern Ontario & Quebec during the 1950s. In 1956 he formed his own consulting firm named Sheridan Geophysics. He would go on to develop several copper, nickel and gold mines.

John met his future wife Marjorie on a blind date in Toronto. The couple married in 1958 in the mining town of Kirkland Lake where Marjorie worked at the Teck Hughes Mine.

Some of Mr. Sheridan’s stakes were failures, while others paid off handsomely. Such was the case with a stake of land he had near Timmins, Ontario. The area became the great Texas Gulf base metals discovery which was announced in April of 1964. This discovery would eventually become Kidd Creek Mines.

Mr. Sheridan developed the Lac des Iles mine (Quebec) during the 1980s which became a large producer of palladium and platinum. In 1994, companies that Mr. Sheridan controlled, sold their shares in the Northern Ontario mine to North American Palladium for close to $26.5 million. This sale earned Mr. Sheridan almost $7 million per year in royalties.

Respected Businessman

A fellow businessman stopped by the office one day and tried to persuade Mr. Sheridan to purchase a copper/zinc mine in Monroe Township. With a handshake, the deal was made. When the mine turned out to be a failure, the former owner decided he’d like to buy the property back. Mr. Sheridan agreed in exchange for a bottle of Scotch. When the bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label was presented to Mr. Sheridan the property transfer was completed.

In another business dealing, this time in a bar in Timmins during the late 80’s, a deal was negotiated with a hangshake for a former gold mine. Mr. Sheridan’s word was solid, for the money had been deposited into the seller’s account before the paperwork was even drawn up.

Today

Mr. Sheridan passed away on January 10th, 2015 at the age of 81 years old.

Their house was put up for sale in the fall of 2020 with the condition that Marjorie be allowed to remain as a tenant for one year, or to close the deal a year later with the buyer taking full occupancy. The house sold in October of 2020. As for Mrs. Sheridan she would pass away just two months later.

The house is a well preserved time capsule in archecture. It features vibrant colours, zany wallpaper flower patterns and other bright artwork, a 60’s Flair oven and that groovy art on the basement walls. Just some of the features that make this house a throwback to the dazzling 60’s. In the backyard are two pools.

As of March 2022, the house is vacant and plywood has gone up over the windows. This is usually a precursor to demolition which seems the likely outcome given the aged interior of this house.

Photos from March of 2022

Video

I purchased a microphone for my camera in order that you wouldn’t hear the lens focusing during video. As you’ll hear, it didn’t work. I’m going to purchase a GoPro and be done with this garbage. It sounds like the Borg are narrating the video.

This old house is next to another abandoned property. Inside you’ll find the customary newel post staircase as was common back in the days when craftsmanship went into home building, peeling paint and general decay. It appears to have been in disuse since at least 2012 or perhaps used as a seasonal property.

While exploring this location, we were met with a neighbour who advised us that the property was private property. We left shortly thereafter. The photos will have some noise in them as my camera settings were incorrect.

Properties like this are more likely to be in-between owners than completely abandoned. During our exploration back in 2016, I didn’t feel like this had much photogenic value given its modern look. When I looked on Stree View for 2021, there’s a truck in the driveway. Perhaps this property is lived in once more.

Highway 124

This is a rural farm property with sheds and barns located in Stayner, Ontario. There’s a workshop with old wood-working tools. The crops are used for growing corn. And there’s a horse-drawn carriage in the barn!

Someone may have been staying here at one point in time as seen by footprints in the dust, cans of soup in the kitchen and a futon.

I’ve known about this house for a while now and finally decided to give it a visit one rainy morning. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to gain access once I saw fresh plywood on a patio door and tire tracks in the driveway.

Fortunately a door was open. Nothing really stood out to me as being interesting. There were several consumed cans of beer, a few shotgun shells. The basement was flooded a few feet. Midway through my visit, I started to cough. My throat began to burn. By the time I walked out the door, my eyes were burning with pain. My skin was flushed. I think someone poured a large amount of Javex on the floor, although my sense of smell didn’t detect anything unusual.

It took me 10 minutes before I was able to drive home due to my watering eyes.

This house is named Mikayla’s House because it was sent to me for potential exploring by a former occupant named Mikayla.

The photos aren’t the greatest, as I was in and out quite quickly. There was a bird trapped in the living room that I tried to free from the blinds. Even if I could have persuaded it to fly out of the window, it was unlikely to find it’s way out to the door. It disappeared while I was upstairs, and I don’t know if it exited or not.

Thanks Mikayla!

This house was located in prime real estate area of London, Ontario. It also happened to be situated in swampy area with it’s own little body of water in the back yard.

The property has been heavily trashed and there’s black mold on the walls, given the lack of windows and humidity. The back yard has deer feeding in the grass.

The last occupants were Henk and Frederica Kaak who died in 1996 and 2008 respectively.

The house is now demolished.

A rural house in Halton Hills, Ontario dangerously on the verge of collapsing.

It held a collection of elegant old couches.

The house was demolished in November of 2012.

An old brick farm house which was at the intersections of highways 89 and 10 in Mulmur, Ontario. I’m sure the house has been demolished by now.

Photos taken in 2014.

This farm house sits down a long overgrown driveway in Guelph Eramosa. At the time of my visit here, the rotary telephone worked (dial tone) as did the hydro. In fact during one explorer’s visit, another explorer called him on the number listed on the telephone – scaring the explorer inside the house.

This house was a true gem. It had several old antiques including an old record player, dresser, antique handheld mirrors to name just a few things. There were old school books that would have belonged to a young child.

Over time of course, things disappeared… starting with the handheld mirrors, the phone was smashed, and the antique dresser disappeared. All to be expected with something this beautiful.