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Improbable survivor

Alexandra and Christian Frueh’s historic home on Meadowvale Road in the Highland Creek neighbourhood of Scarborough has some interesting tales to tell about life in the area long before it was overtaken by suburban sprawl and amalgamated into the city of Toronto.

Historic building

It stands on a quarter-acre remnant of 200 acres granted to a Captain Owen McGrath of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers in the 1790s.

Archival documentation shows a log cabin on the property, and then a frame house was constructed circa 1852. The bricks were added some time later in the style of Upper Canadian vernacular.

Although now covered up, the boards used in the original structure are two feet wide and must have come from the first cut of old-growth timber on the property, Ms. Frueh believes. Little cat-paw marks in some of the brick make her think it was dried on the premises, as was a habit of the time. Some other brick is soot-stained, likely recycled after a fire years ago at the nearby Meadowvale School. The original hemlock floors in the living room and dining room bear signs of life from long-departed families.

The Fruehs, both Toronto natives, were living in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto in the late 1990s when they got a hankering for a bigger lot with more room for their children. When they stumbled upon this improbable, charming survivor in a sea of modern bungalows and townhouses, they knew it was for them. “It just spoke to us,” Ms. Frueh says, adding that she comes from a family with an ardent appreciation for historic homes.

The original house at 726 Meadowvale Rd. had six rooms, but a modern addition built onto the back by a previous owner had made it a three-bedroom house with two baths. The Fruehs’ renovations have included stripping many layers of paint and wallpaper, replacing the roof, upgrading the wiring and plumbing, updating bathroom fixtures and adding a slate floor in the mudroom, as well as completely redoing two of the bedrooms.

Through it all, they were careful to keep as many of the antique features as possible, such as the high baseboards, ceiling medallions, hand-carved mantelpiece and the hand-blown bubble glass remaining in some of the windows. They scoured antique stores for light fixtures, doorknobs and other adornments that would be in keeping with the character of the house.

They were going to have the floors refinished, but were subsequently glad they didn’t. Ms. Frueh has grown especially fond of the pine boards in front of the kitchen sink, which were found under seven layers of flooring that had been added over the years.

The boards have two subtle indentations about a foot apart that evoke the memory of early housewives who no doubt washed many dishes here with lye soap and well water. She likes to stand in that spot and look out the window at the few fruit trees that survive from a once-thriving orchard and imagine what life would have been like before such amenities as running water, granite counters and dishwashers modernized the kitchen.

“It’s such a warm and inviting home,” she says. “There’s so much character here.”

As fond as she is of it, however, she and her nature-loving family have decided it’s time to move once more and are in search of even more open space. They put the house on the market in late May, asking $650,000, and received a conditional offer June 16 for $635,000 from a professional couple looking to start a family. The conditions were removed in late June and the home sold.

The Meadowvale property has a historic designation. According to Richard Schofield, chair of the Scarborough Preservation Committee, there are about 30 designated dwellings in what was once the city of Scarborough and dozens more that are historic but as yet have no designation.

This means that the historic front of the house cannot be altered.

“Generally speaking, you can’t change what the public sees. You can’t put a picture window in the front or stucco over the bricks,” Mr. Schofield says. “But the interior is wide open. Anyone can do what they want with the interior as long as it’s structurally sound and approved by the building code.”

Changes to modern additions to historic homes are open for discussion.

Mr. Schofield says new owners would likely be able to tear down the two-car garage and perhaps sever the lot.

While Alexandra Frueh knows there is room for more improvement and renovation, she hopes the new owners will have the same appreciation she and her family have had for the venerable house on Meadowvale Road. She’s grateful for the heritage designation that will help preserve it, but also knows the designation is never ironclad.

“You put your heart and soul into these places,” she says. “I know I’ll have to let go and move on, but at the same time it would be heartbreaking to come back some day and see a Tim Hortons or something like that on this corner.”