21 LORRAINE GARDENS, TORONTO
Asking price: $3.895-million
Taxes: $17,825.78 (2014)
Lot size: 2.4 acres
Agent: Andrea Stark (Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Johnston & Daniel Division)
The back story
The estate known as El Capistrano was carved out of a hillside on the west bank of Mimico Creek in 1946, when the sloping ravine lot and pastoral setting offered total seclusion.
“This was a big farmer’s field,” says Joan Williams, who has lived there with her husband Herbert since 1982.
In the 1960s the surrounding area was developed into a small, bucolic sub-division called Lorraine Gardens and somehow the neighbourhood lore became that there were tunnels running beneath El Capistrano. The Williamses say they’ve never found any evidence of tunnels but they wonder if the home’s privacy fuelled the speculation.
“There’s so much mystique about this property,” Mr. Williams says.
The side-split stone house with a terracotta tile roof wouldn’t have been out of place in mid-century California. Art deco elements include rounded walls, black marble accents and a Hollywood-style curving staircase with a metal railing.
The first owners, Edward and Anne Marie Di Palma, moved to Canada from Italy and named the house after their hometown of Capistrano in the Calabria region, Mr. Williams says.
Buildings spread out across the property include a groundskeeper’s cottage, a stone kennel that housed the Di Palmas’ Great Danes, and a cabana with a built-in bar beside the in-ground swimming pool.
The landscaping was created in the 1940s by the English landscape architect Lorrie Dunington-Grubb and her husband and business partner, Howard Dunington-Grubb. The couple, who designed the landscape for Lawrence Park, University Avenue and many private estates, also founded Sheridan Nurseries to grow the plants and shrubs they needed to create magnificent gardens in the colonial wasteland.
A later owner of the estate was the late William Hodgson, a Toronto businessman who built the Skyline Hotel chain and went on to own the Toronto Argonauts Football Club and the Old Mill.
When the Williamses purchased El Capistrano, their son, Robin Williams, urged them to keep the house exactly as is. Today he is known as Prof. Williams, chair in architectural history at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga.
The house today
Mr. Williams, who has a background in advertising, created the SuperDogs show, which entertains crowds at the Canadian National Exhibition and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. He later sold the business.
The Williamses also bred award-winning dogs and one chow chow in particular would bark every time he heard a noise outside in their Beaches neighbourhood.
That propensity prompted the Williams to find a quieter setting.
“It was because of the dogs we moved here,” recalls Mr. Williams, with a smile. “The privacy we have here is just unbelievable.”
Last week Mr. Williams was preparing the garden for a visit by landscape architecture students from the University of Toronto. Each spring the class makes a visit to study the classic design of an estate property, he says.
Mr. Williams, who has listened to the lecture many times, points out how guests arrive from a long, winding driveway to a stone terrace at the front of the house.
From the front door, guests descend a series of levels as they step down to the living room, then the sun porch, then an outdoor terrace, followed by the formal rose garden and finally the manicured path that leads to the stone arbour.
The interior and the grounds have been the setting for many movies and film commercials, Mr. Williams says, pointing to the large, circular lawn where Loblaw Cos. Ltd. filmed commercials for its barbeque sauces and marinades.
The layout of the house has not been changed. Many of the finishes and even the draperies are original.
“When the movie companies come in they say ‘perfect, no pot lights.’”
Janet Leigh and Powers Boothe are two of the actors who have filmed there, says real estate agent Andrea Stark of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Johnston & Daniel Division.
Mr. Williams points out that the dining room is separated from the living room by steps, curved partial walls and curtains. The curtains were pulled across so that staff could set up the dining room table while the Di Palmas entertained guests in the living room, he explains.
Doors lead from the dining room to an outdoor terrace where the ornamental gates bear the initials AM DP, for Anne Marie Di Palma.
“There are so many special spots here,” Ms. Stark says.
The master bedroom, which overlooks the backyard, has red and gold flocked wallpaper and built-in bookshelves.
“This is the room that is a film director’s heaven,” Mr. Williams says. “It has not changed in 70 years.”
Another icon of art deco, the opaque glass called Vitrolite, can be found in the ensuite master bath, which is tiled in pink. The other bathrooms have green and black Vitrolite. Mr. Williams says the same large tiles were used to line the walls of Toronto’s subway stations.
Mr. Williams hopes a new owner will preserve the lustrous surface.
“I would hate to see somebody come and tear that out and put chintzy little tiles,” he says.
A second bedroom on the upper level overlooks the front garden.
A dramatic oval staircase leads to the lower level ballroom, which has a wall of windows overlooking the garden and a floor of black Terrazzo inlaid with white stripes of marble.
Mr. Williams says the room, which also has a deco-style bar, once stood in for studio executive Jack Warner’s Hollywood office.
Another part of the basement holds a lead-lined room which Mr. Williams calls “the bomb shelter,” though he’s not sure of the original purpose. There’s also a hidden wall safe.
“Who else has a vault behind the vegetable bin?”
The best feature
The formal gardens include fountains, manicured hedges and towering trees.
One large circular hedge at the front of the house has changed shape under the force of wind and weather over the years.
“I like the rhythm of it. I don’t want it to go back to flat and straight,” Mr. Williams says.
An in-ground swimming pool with a white-and-pink Hollywood-style cabana is sheltered by a dip in the landscape.
The rocks and terraces cover the sloping land all the way down to Mimico Creek, which runs along one edge of the property.
Mr. Williams says the family has held wedding receptions and parties on the grounds.
One publicist was feted with a celebration that included Willie Nelson among the guests. Mr. Williams points to a bench where he sat with the American singer overlooking the swimming pool below.
Mr. Williams recalled that the singer looked around at the sloping lawns and mature trees and declared, “it’s too nice for Beverly Hills.”