28 BRACKEN AVE.
Asking price: $1.979-million
Taxes: $9,962.52 (2015)
Lot size: 50 by 110 feet
Agent: Jillinda Greene, ReMax Hallmark Realty Ltd.
The back story
The Arts and Crafts-style house at 28 Bracken Ave. in the Beaches was known for years as “the moose house” by people in the neighbourhood because one of its owners had mounted a hunting trophy on the front porch.
Real estate agent Jillinda Greene, who grew up in the Beaches, says the house was a local landmark. Everybody knew the moose head – partly because the owner would dress it up for Christmas every year. It was only years later that Ms. Greene found out that the moose was actually a female with the antlers glued on.
Ms. Greene recalls that the owner eventually had to put an alarm on the unfortunate animal because pranksters would abscond with it.
“People in the Beach would think it would be funny to move it a few streets over and he would find it on someone’s front lawn.”
Long before that time, the first owners of the circa 1913 house often held dances and social gatherings in a large second-floor salon. A small alcove at the front provided a spot for the musicians to set up.
Originally the four-bedroom house sat on a larger piece of land and the grounds included a tennis court but the lot was divided many years ago.
The house today
Current owner Karl Thomson and his family bought the house about 16 years ago.
At that time the house was owned by two university professors who rented it out to students.
Mr. Thomson learned that original elements such as oak trim, beamed ceilings and a plate rail in the dining room had all been painted in years past but the professors had erected scaffolding and laid on their backs to painstakingly scrape away the layers of paint.
Even with that hard labour finished, Mr. Thomson and his wife continued the refurbishment with new kitchens and bathrooms.
“It was a fair project for us because we brought it back to the grand old manor house that it was.”
Mr. Thomson had studied architecture and was keen to buy a hard loft but the spacious Beaches house seemed a more fitting place to raise two young children. Soon after moving in, he took a chisel to the plaster and found a brick wall that had been enclosed by an earlier renovation.
He had the brick uncovered to add character to the interior and make the house feel less traditional.
A grand central staircase stands in front of a more modest servants’ staircase behind. Throughout the house, mainly original windows are still in place. Mr. Thomson recently installed new oak floors on the main level.
The second-floor salon, which has an exposed brick wall, a fireplace with an antique wood surround and room for a dining table and a sunny alcove overlooking the street, is where the family gathered most often.
“It was a great family room for the kids,” Mr. Thomson said.
The second floor also has two bedrooms and a bathroom. A home office next to the salon has a vaulted ceiling and French doors leading to a Juliet balcony. Upstairs, there are two more bedrooms and a bathroom on the third floor.
Ms. Greene points out that families who need more rooms could easily turn the salon into two additional bedrooms. A large kitchen is connected to the garden by a mud room at the rear.
Outside, the house has a double car garage and a patio covered by a pergola. Mr. Thomson says the large side lot was a good spot for play equipment for the kids.
From Bracken Avenue, just south of Kingston Road, it’s a downhill walk to Queen Street and the Beaches boardwalk along Lake Ontario.
The best feature
The house is set on a corner lot, which makes the large porch a good vantage point for watching neighbourhood happenings.
“It’s set far back from the road,” Mr. Thomson says.
The arrangement of staggered columns was a signature of the original architect, who designed several houses in the Beaches, he adds. The porch has a wide plank floor and lots of room for wicker furniture. As for the moose, Mr. Thomson found a new home for it many years ago when a builder working on the house said he would love to relocate it to his cabin up north.
“I think that’s part of the fun about that place,” Mr. Thomson says of the lore surrounding the moose. “It hung there for about 50 years.”