ADDRESS: 24 Elgin Avenue
NEIGHBOURHOOD: Yorkville
AGENT: Gay Louise MacLeod, Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd.
PRICE: $3.495 million
THE PLACE: Built in 1879 by Robert Smarr, one of Yorkville’s foremost developers in the 19th-century, this semi-detached residence still sports the high ceilings and original mouldings, trim and hardware of the Romantic Era. Of course, the property has been carefully renovated and restored over the past 20 years to include modern touches, like the spacious contemporary kitchen overlooking the terrace. The spiral staircase leading from the family room to the second floor dates back to bygone days of live-in help, but the master bedroom’s dressing room and third floor suite will certainly come in handy for modern comforts.
BRAGGING RIGHTS: Few Yorkville dwellers can say they live in one of the mansions built before the neighbourhood was annexed to Toronto in 1883.
BIG SELLING POINT: Unlike almost all Yorkville homes, 24 Elgin Avenue has that real estate triumvirate of private drive, backyard and garage.
POSSIBLE DEAL BREAKER: The basement is unfinished, which means the sound of the kids playing Rock Band will carry through the whole house via century-old wood.
BY THE NUMBERS:
• 5,989 square feet
• 5 bedrooms
• 5 bathrooms
• 5-car parking
• 3 storeys
• 2 fireplaces
• 2 staircases
• 2 front porches
• 1 dressing room
• 1 statue
37848 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MAIN.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MAIN.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MAIN.jpg 274 501 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/main-6/ main-6 0 0
37850 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1.jpg 424 294 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/1-4/ 1-4 0 0
37860 Verandah 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Elgin-side-Verandah-from-dr.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Elgin-side-Verandah-from-dr.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Elgin-side-Verandah-from-dr.jpg 320 480 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/elgin-side-verandah-from-dr/ elgin-side-verandah-from-dr 0 0
Verandah
37851 Dining Room 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2.jpg 340 227 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/2-2/ 2-2 0 0
Dining Room
37852 Second Bedroom 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2nd-Bedroom-on-Second-Floor.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2nd-Bedroom-on-Second-Floor.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2nd-Bedroom-on-Second-Floor.jpg 640 427 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/2nd-bedroom-on-second-floor/ 2nd-bedroom-on-second-floor 0 0
Second Bedroom
37853 Living Room 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/3.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/3.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/3.jpg 480 317 {"aperture":"6.3","credit":"kristof","camera":"Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II","created_timestamp":"1282112192","copyright":"foto-studio.com","focal_length":"16","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.166666666667"} https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/3-4/ 3-4 0 0
Living Room
37854 Kitchen 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/4.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/4.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/4.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/4-2/ 4-2 0 0
Kitchen
37855 Sitting Room 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/5.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/5.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/5.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/5-3/ 5-3 0 0
Sitting Room
37858 Patio 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/8.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/8.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/8.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/8-3/ 8-3 0 0
Patio
37859 Dressing Room 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Dressing-room-best.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Dressing-room-best.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Dressing-room-best.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/dressing-room-best/ dressing-room-best 0 0
Dressing Room
37861 Garden with statue 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Garden-with-statue.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Garden-with-statue.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Garden-with-statue.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/garden-with-statue/ garden-with-statue 0 0
Garden with statue
37862 Kitchen 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Kitchen1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Kitchen1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Kitchen1.jpg 640 447 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/kitchen-9/ kitchen-9 0 0
Kitchen
37863 Master Bedroom 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Master-Bedroom.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Master-Bedroom.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Master-Bedroom.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/master-bedroom/ master-bedroom 0 0
Master Bedroom
37864 Ensuite Bathroom 24 Elgin Avenue https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Master-Ensuite-Bath.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Master-Ensuite-Bath.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Master-Ensuite-Bath.jpg 480 320 [] https://torontolife.com/real-estate/house-of-the-week-3-5-million-for-yorkville-mansion-built-in-1879/slide/master-ensuite-bath/ master-ensuite-bath 0 0
Ensuite Bathroom
Your choice for this week’s “House of the Week” was dismaying to me personally. Number 24 Elgin Ave. was my beloved childhood home, sold in the ’90s to an architect. The gap in the price paid to my parents and the current asking price of $3.5 million is ludicrous. The facade is the same. The structure was more than sound. And the white-walled, modernly furnitured interiors of the 15-16 rooms is bland and without character. What character there is jars badly with the Victorian
exterior. Finally, the obliteration of the front and back gardens—lovingly tended to for decades, sporting countless fruit trees, a vintage pear tree, flower patches and veggie squares, all tailored with wrought iron fences—is tragic. The back now has a totally pretentious statue. And the front—calculatedly low-maintenance, with only two swirling hedges—is not terribly apt.
A relative who perused the chestnut-lined street recently, said that the houses are now so pretentious that the street is nauseating. In truth, the street as a whole is the epitome of what makes Toronto residential architecture dismaying in its effort to portray how rich the residents must be. Contrast that, if you dare, with Montreal, where individual residences merely express a joyful, individualistic celebration of life.
I still dream of the street that once was the preserve of U of T profs and journalists like Keith Morrison. It was quaint, lovely and naturally beautiful, with an atmosphere that was as warm as a Mark Twain-type neighbourhood. What social and visual values is your magazine championing? Very sad, overall. As an artist and art historian, I would say that self-consciousness on the superficial level is not something to be devoutly wished for in life nor in the images a magazine puts on a pedestal.
Sincerely,
Jocelyn Chu Thomas, Blairmore, AB
$3.5 million for a semi detached? No way. Not to mention the kitchen is awful, in need of a reno…
Nothing great about this house – except perhaps the location – but then again too much sidewalk traffic and a two way road which gets busy during peak hours – cars whizzing by constantly.
I wouldn’t pay more than $2.5 for this.
Why are you calling this Yorkville. Its the Annex. Shouldn’t a magazine devoted to Toronto know which neighbourhood is which? Or is the Yorkville tag provided by the realtor, no doubt designed to increase the price and your “journalist” was too lazy to change it.