This house is located on Wilket Street in Toronto. Its life is short however because it’s destined to become the site of 7 new townhouses named Bayview on the Park. The three-storey townhouses will be for sale starting at $3,000,000. On January 18, 2016 the Ontario Municipal Board ruled that the developer could proceed with plans to build after the City of Toronto stalled on making a decision.For now this house sits untouched, with working electricity.

This was the home of Paul and his wife Edith. Paul grew up in Windsor, Ontario. He began drawing with a pencil at the age of 4. By the age of 17, Paul was playing the trumpet. When he began listening to Ray Charles, Paul converted to soul, jazz and blues music.

In the 1960s he played in Ronnie Hawkins’ band.

Paul’s father was a painter and provided Paul with lessons in drawing. Paul was inspired to begin painting and sketching the African-American musicians he was fond of listening to. By 1993 he became more serious about his paintings and by 1998, he had painted approximately 200 paintings. Some of the commissioned works Paul has created are shown in homes in the USA, U.K. and Europe. He also sells his work on E-Bay, evidence of which was discovered when I explored the house (see video).

In the late 1990’s he played saxophone for local jazz festivals and was in a gospel band.

The Exploration

The house has had some of its windows removed, most of the contents are gone except for what was unwanted (old computer accessories and sketch books). Paul left behind his electronic keyboard, mixing board and guitar amplifier. There are two large outbuildings which are also empty. The front lawn has been torn up and the trees uprooted. This house doesn’t have long before the bulldozer will come in and tear it down.

I do not own the rights to Paul’s work, they remain his copyright. A huge thank you to Jason E. for sharing this place with me.

Mobile Photo Photos

This house sits on prime land located along Harrison Road in North York, Ontario. It is by no means outdated. This house was built only in 1996, but that hasn’t stopped developers from tossing wads of cash at the owners in an effort to squeeze more housing in place. The developer’s proposal is for a 3-level six unit condo.

The developer sought a zoning By-law amendment that would allow for the six unit structure. In 2016, the City of Toronto sought a community meeting to obtain input from the surrounding property owners. By December of 2016 it was recommended that Toronto City Council refuse to grant the application, which they did.

As of August 2020 the developer was appealing to the OMB, the refusal by the City of Toronto to allow the zoning By-law amendment. Neighbours were opposed to the condos which they said would be out of character with the existing community. The developer’s appeal was granted but I don’t know the outcome of it any hearing has since been scheduled.

The property had an outdated listing as a bed and breakfast though I could find no information other than the address. In the winter of 2021 into 2022, a pipe had burst above the kitchen and water was gushing down into the kitchen. During our March 2022 visit the water had been turned off. Despite the torn up structures and water damage, the electricity was still working.

Based on the ripped out backsplash and dishwasher along with the water flooding, it’s my opinion that scrappers may have caused this damage.

The dining room features a nice chandeleir and a ceiling medallion. In the rear of the house are a set of double doors leading out to a patio. The wooden floors are buckled in many places, a testament to the continous water that was left running.

For now the house sits vacant, it’s future up in limbo and the only visitors are the occasional photographer and scrapper.

As of November 2022 there is fresh plywood on the doors.

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.