I know very little about the background of this house except that it was lived in by an elderly couple. Most of the contents are still inside and there’s no vandalism. The kitchen still contains dishes and jars of cooking spices. The living room is quite simplistic as is the bedroom.

The bed appeared like someone woke up, pulled the covers aside and started their day only to never return. You might think this is a seasonal home, perhaps it is… there’s mold growing all over the inside of the hutch however. Someone has attempted to strip the copper from inside the walls.

While I know the woman’s name, I can’t find any mention of her, or any obituary on the internet. For now, the mystery remains…

Cell phone photos

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.

Edit: We managed to tackle the two outstanding houses on a return visit in 2023.

House #2

This property is located along a quiet road in Northern Ontario. It looks like it was (or is) used seasonally. There’s a water well in the basement though it looks pretty murky. The hydro didn’t work but it could have been temporarily turned off. There was little of interest to see aside from the iron frame beds.

This would fall under urban exploration not ‘abandoned’, unless of course nobody ever returns to this camp.

When you’re shooting with a wide angle lens, sometimes it’s more prudent to just take cell phone photos. This was the case when we ventured into this location I call “Junk Joint”.

The property consists of several old vehicles lining the entrance, a large garage filled with old 1980’s and 90’s toys, an RV home and the main house. The house was bitterly cold and I joked that we should turn the furnace on. You could imagine my surprise when I tried a light switch and it worked!

There is so much decay and everything is just sort of scattered about. This is one of those places where your eyes and mind are just trying to absorb everything all at once. Based on a two-way radio and other items found, we believe the owner used to work for CN Rail.

There’s nothing really photogenic about the property except the exterior of the house, which would look rather nice in the summer.

Incidentally we parked at the point where the fence stopped and walked in. The trek was difficult through the snow and tangly overgrowth. Only when it was time to leave, did we realize that the main gate was unlocked and you could walk in and out.

There were several proof of delivery notices from Canada Post which led me to believe were bylaw notices. There was an Emergency Order from the township which I believe related to the state of the property.

Video

This is a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom luxury home located in Toronto. The house is valued at approximately $2.6 million. It is by no means abandoned, only between owners as it’s recently been sold.

There was another house in the same cul-de sac that appeared to be vacant due to the unplowed snow in the driveway. I took a look around and noted that it appears to be staged for sale. As I was exploring the exterior, a neighbour had by now noticed us. He watched us from his driveway while trying to hide himself behind a tree.

There’s no entry to the second vacant house.

Video

This barn appears to have little of interest if you were to pass it by, but should you take the time to enter it you’ll find it holds a few secrets.

There are several old fox body Mustangs, 60’s Mustangs and a Mercury Capri. There’s a thick layer of dust on the vehicles which indicates they’ve been here for some time. Some of the glass has been smashed, and the interiors are pretty much gutted. It’s unlikely these will be back on the road, but one can still dream.

This location was one of several addresses that happened across my desktop over the course of 2022. I’d seen photos of the pool area posted by other explorers. We decided to visit the house in the fall of 2022. The pool is the most interesting part of the house. Beyond the sliding patio door, the house takes on an entirely different appearance – that is, completely modern in comparison to the outdated pool room.

The appliances were brand new and there was a smell of laquer in the air. When I put my foot down on the wooden floor, it stuck to the still drying laquer. Clearly this house was no longer on the abandoned list.

Through research I learned that back in 2013, an application was made to the City of Toronto to build ten townhouses and two houses on this property. By 2016, an application was made to the Ontario Municipal Board because the City of Toronto hadn’t yet made a decision on allowing the application within the alloted timeframe. The issue appeared to be disagreements with the city and developer regarding design guidelines.

Given the current status of this property, I’m surmising that the application for townhouses has been withdrawn or denied.

This was the home of Donald D. Dunning and his wife Elizabeth. The couple were married in 1951 and resided in Niles, Michigan. Donald was later transferred to Toronto where he was the president of the Kawneer Company. They lived in Toronto for 10 years. The couple had two daughters and one son. A daughter named Ann who attended the Wayland Academy in Wisconsin (1961). They were residing in the Toronto home in 1961 according to my research. In 1972 they moved to California.

Records show that in 1965 a man named Jack C. moved into the home. Jack passed away in 2019. He may have been the owner at that time, the same year when the house was sold. The house was then leased out until June of 2020. It was listed on the market and sold in 2022.

The property is valued at approximately $5 million.

Based on the interior design, I’m thinking that the house hasn’t been updated since it’s construction in the early 1960’s.

The rear of the house features a ceiling to floor window sun room. Perhaps this is where Jack grew his tomatoes. Jack was a serious tomato grower and gave seminars on growing. The front of the house also features ceiling to floor windows. The ceiling contains an unusual design by today’s standards with full length wooden slots.

In November of 2022, I explored three consecutive houses located in Woodbridge, Ontario that are soon to be demolished. The first and last houses each had a claw tub in the bathroom. The middle house was locked.

These type of properties are left messy, for no new owner will be moving into them. I find little of interest in photographing this type of location but I managed to get a few decent photos. Unfortunately the new vidoe camera I purchased is of terrible quality – the YouTube video audio and video is somewhat poor.

A stone brick house in the area of Guelph-Eramosa. It’s also known as The Safe House, for a vault that used to be on the property.