ADDRESS: 50 Old Yonge Street
NEIGHBOURHOOD: Bridle Path-Sunny Brook-York Mills
AGENTS: Cheryl L. Graff and Samantha Graff, Harvey Kalles Real Estate
PRICE: $3,600,000
THE PLACE: With recessed ceilings, myriad chandeliers and polished marble floors with mosaic inlays, this home is all old-school grandeur. The stone exterior opens to four expansive storeys in the back, hiding ten bathrooms, room for nine bedrooms and an enormous kitchen in its depths.
BRAGGING RIGHTS: The living room, with hardwood floors, outsized fireplace and palladiumPalladian-style windows, is straight out of The Great Gatsby. With F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original inspiration for Jay’s house coming down, this could be an excellent candidate for its replacement (or, failing that, for elegant Prohibition- themed parties).
BIG SELLING POINT: The dark hardwood library only needs a few leather-bound books and a rich mahogany air freshener to transport visitors to an Oxbridge gentleman’s club.
POSSIBLE DEAL BREAKER: Depending on your fitness level, the house’s four storeys might be a lot to traverse every day. Of course, if you’re feeling lazy, there’s always the elevator.
BY THE NUMBERS:
• $19,996 in taxes
• 163 x 168.66 foot lot
• 10 bathrooms
• 5 + 4 bedrooms
• 4 storeys
• 4 cameras
• 3 fireplaces
• 1 circular driveway
• 1 elevator
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- Dining room
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- Main stairway
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- Living room, with soaring ceiling
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- Library
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- Den
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- Dining area
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- Kitchen and desk
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- Kitchen
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- Skylight shining into the upstairs hallway
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- Master bedroom
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- View of foyer from second floor
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- Ceiling of foyer
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- Party space, with fireplace
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- Washroom
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- Exterior, front
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- The soaring four levels, seen from behind
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- Yard with iron gate
this house is hideous.
March 23, 2011 at 4:10 pm | by Kate RobertsonKate, I was going to post the exact same comment. Now I’ll just say, $3 million + can buy you a whole lot of ugly!!!
March 24, 2011 at 7:11 am | by KimI bet the Shah lived this way. Loving the golden chairs. P.S. Toronto Life, it’s spelled “opulence,” not “opulance”
March 24, 2011 at 8:18 am | by keithUgh. This house needs staging…empty bookcases, plants in the tub, plastic covering the party room tables. Prestigious neighborhoods, elevators and million dollar listings don’t impress. I’ll stick to my 3 bed, 2 bath semi in the west end! Money can’t buy happiness or style..
March 24, 2011 at 8:24 am | by StephAbsolutely perfect–for a Russian oligarch, or someone with with as little taste as one.
Come on TL: is this crap the best you can do?
March 24, 2011 at 9:19 am | by MikeAwful. This house looks like it was built in a weekend and “decorated” in the remaining 45 minutes between the time the builder left and Toronto Life’s photog came by.
Recently, I’ve been annoyed at the fact Toronto Life doesn’t know its readership demographic and puts up ridiculously expensive properties as a result. With this example, I’m starting to think that Toronto Life is actually making fun of the of sensibility and taste that too many wealthy Torontonians lack. If that’s the end goal, Toronto Life, then bravo for being so sly about it. I didn’t get it until just now.
March 24, 2011 at 10:44 am | by NFReaders, use your creativity and imagine what it would look like under your own creative designs and not of the ones interpreted in the photos.
March 24, 2011 at 1:25 pm | by Perry PSo few newer homes are built for living. This house is a good example of crappy design – so much wasted space yet and few well -sized usable, practical space. Hopefully an architect was not involved; no amount of fluffing will save this faux chateau.
March 24, 2011 at 1:43 pm | by FelicityThis looks like the kind of place where Monty Burns would live. Cold, barren and tasteless. TL, show houses with big style, not just big price price tags!
March 24, 2011 at 2:43 pm | by HCPS: There is a reason they did not show the backyard – This house backs directly on to York Mills and does not have a blade of grass between the house and the property fence.
looks like they spent all their money on this butt ugly house and had little left for furnishings
March 24, 2011 at 7:34 pm | by nicoleLooks like a retirement home. Or a Best Western in rural Manitoba. Who needs it… Barf
March 25, 2011 at 5:52 am | by RyanIf you love the sound of traffic 24 hours/day, this place is for you. What a rotten location.
March 25, 2011 at 9:11 am | by JCSuch bitter comments. Despite this house being ugly, I’d still rather be there than in some little west end bungalow (yuk!). Yes, money can’t buy happiness, but I’d rather be rich and miserable than broke and miserable.
I hope TL doesn’t follow the suggestion for it to show more sensible properties. These far out properties are much more interesting. If I wanted sensible, I’d turn to the MLS listing or read the real estate section.
March 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm | by Big Slickyawn! Big and soulless… is this the future of all high-end Toronto housing?
March 25, 2011 at 10:13 pm | by Reality CheckVery ugly house !!! N.B. Should read Palladian-style windows, named after the famous Italian architect Palladio.
March 26, 2011 at 5:22 pm | by Maureen Segato