Gareth Seltzer is delighted that the house at 534 Huron was divided up into five apartments in the 1950s.
Had the renovation been done a couple of decades later, the pocket doors, stained glass windows and elaborate plaster work that grace the 1895 mansion likely would have been sent to the nearest dump.
“They just threw everything into a bin,” he says of the 1970s, when turn-of-the-centuryhouses were overhauled with sliding glass doors and wall-to-wall broadloom.
Now, Mr. Seltzer enjoys drawing the original pocket doors that close off the dining room.
“I just feel passionate about how many people have opened these doors to have dinner in this room,” Mr. Seltzer says as he scans the panelled walls and oak floors.
He enjoys imaging the life that took place in the houses – seven so far – that he has renovated in the Annex neighbourhood.
“That's part of what's exciting about these houses.”
Mr. Seltzer is a former money manager who quit Bay Street in order to follow more meaningful pursuits as he grappled with the accidental death of his brother and sister-in-law.
In Mr. Seltzer's case, restoring historic houses in the Annex is profitable, but it is also fulfilling in a way that trading stocks was not.
His previous projects have included the former German consulate at 77 Admiral Road, and another on Admiral that became home to former Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and author John Ralston Saul.
Dec 16, 2009 - Pictures of Gareth Seltzer's latest project on Huron St. Real estate. Photo: Charla Jones/Globe and Mail
His research told him that 534 Huron was built by architect Frederick H. Herbert, who also designed the Robert T. Brodie house next door, as well as stately homes nearby on Walmer, Lowther and Madison Avenue. In Rosedale, Mr. Herbert designed mansions on Elm.
Mr. Herbert's commercial work included a Bank of Montreal building on Queen Street West and the Sunbeam Incandescent Lamp Factory on Dufferin Street.
The first owner of 534 Huron was prominent businessman Thomas Fraser, who, with his wife Agnes, raised their six children in the house.
When Mr. Seltzer purchased the house the basement was uninhabitable and the third floor was a “rabbit's warren.”
His extensive restoration included the exterior window sills, which had deteriorated. But sandstone is difficult to find so Mr. Seltzer had to go back to the quarry in Scotland where the stone for the original sills came from in order to replace them.
Dec 16, 2009 - Pictures of Gareth Seltzer's latest project on Huron St. Real estate. Photo: Charla Jones/Globe and Mail
Once the renovation was under way, he decided to open up the stairwell in order to make the floors feel more connected.
At the time the house was built, people preferred to look out toward the street, not to the back, which is where horses and carriages were kept.
“They never embraced the back garden,” says Mr. Seltzer.
As he updates houses now, he makes them more suitable for family living by opening up the back with a large kitchen and a swathe of glass.
One thing everyone seems to want these days is a chef's-style kitchen, he adds. In this house, he created a combined kitchen and family room with doors leading out to a deck. The kitchen luxuries include a restaurant-quality range, a built-in Miele coffee maker and heated floors.
“I would tend to think people would live in this space,” he says.
The house has four fireplaces, “which in some ways for a house this size is a modest number,” says Mr. Seltzer.
He expects that, back in the late 1890s when the home was built, Mr. Fraser was bringing in more advanced heating and therefore didn't have a wood-burning fireplace installed in every room. “Now people pine for more fireplaces.”
