- 53 TURNER RD.
- WHAT: A two-storey residence built in 1926 on a 50- by 126-foot corner lot in the Hillside neighbourhood. A restoration of the house has preserved its Tudor revival architecture.
- ASKING PRICE: $1,049,000
- SELLING PRICE: $1,230,000
- TAXES: $6,166 (2007)
- AGENT: Carol McLaughlin, Forest Hill Real Estate Inc.
AMENITIES: The two-storey house has more than 3,100 square feet of living space. There are six bedrooms — including two on the main floor that have been used as a family room and office — as well as two full bathrooms, a den and a rear sunroom.
The principal rooms, with bay windows, and the kitchen are all situated on the north side of the house. French doors lead into the living room, which has a wood-burning fireplace flanked by built-in shelving. Another set of French doors leads to a dining room featuring beamed ceilings.
The kitchen has a pantry, built-in cabinetry and a breakfast area, as well as a dumb waiter.
The current owners have restored the original wood windows and put up storm windows every fall.
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On the second floor, there are four bedrooms, each with walk-in closets.
Facing Tyrell Avenue, there is an attached double garage and private driveway.
The Hillcrest community has many grand homes built in period revival styles — creative interpretations of various architectural designs that were popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the homes in the area, for instance, are done in a Georgian revival manner.
The design of the residence at 53 Turner Rd., built in 1926, is Tudor revival. It's a designated heritage home, but the seller sought the status not only for the exterior but for parts of the interior.
"Many people might go for that designation of the exterior of the house," agent Carol McLaughlin says. "What's unusual in this case is that the [seller] — who is a heritage restoration architect — went to designate much of the interior to save it from people tearing down walls and taking away the original interior character."
Designed by local architects, Smith and Wright, the home was built on the southeast corner of Tyrell Avenue and Turner Road for a wealthy tailor shop owner, John Agnew.
The land was part of the original estate of Colonel Robert John Turner, who first settled in the area northwest of Davenport Road and Christie Street in the mid-19th century. His residence, named Bracondale Hill, stood where a tennis court now is in Hillcrest Park.
A small community developed around the property and became known as Bracondale Village. It was annexed by the city of Toronto in 1909.
The Turner property was later turned into a subdivision called Bracondale Hill Park within the larger Hillcrest neighbourhood.
"It's now considered one of the hottest neighbourhoods in Toronto," Ms. McLaughlin notes.
Mr. Agnew chose the location for his home because it was close to the home and medical practice of his eldest son, Harvey. His second son, Robert Gordon, was associated with the St. Clair United Church (now St. Matthew's) nearby before he went to China to conduct university research and missionary work.
"It's quite a landmark house," Ms. McLaughlin says of 53 Turner. "It is a corner lot, so people see it coming from three different directions."
That is how the sellers and second owners, Alan and Catherine Seymour, became familiar with the house. Before it came on the market in 1998, they often admired its exterior design as they cycled downtown from their residence just north of Turner Road.
It features a red brick cladding with wood accents, pebbled infill and steeply pitched, half-timbered gables with extended eaves and exposed rafters.
There are several bay windows, eyelid dormers and large windows with small panes on top and a large single pane below.
The Seymours put up the original storms and screens every fall, just as the previous owners did in the early days. "It's a job — a tedious job — but we do it because we'd rather have the wooden windows … than those awful aluminum things," Mr. Seymour says. "They look much nicer."
Some of the authentic components inside include quarter-sawn oak floors and trim throughout, and plate rails and beamed ceilings in the dining room.
There are original cove ceilings in many areas, such as the entrance hall and den, as well as built-in shelving in the living room, which has a fireplace, and master suite.
In the office, the baseboard has a two-toned painted trim from the 1930s, which Mr. Seymour says he has never seen anywhere else.
"If a house — or any building actually — has original features, which were done with care and good craftsmanship, then it's worth respecting the integrity of the original design," he says. "You wouldn't put vinyl siding over the Parthenon to preserve it."
Many custom features also tell a story of the past, such as the shallow steps on the staircase that made it less exhausting for Ms. Agnew to go upstairs given her heart condition.
In the master bedroom, there is a dresser built into the wall, with drawers that increase in depth to follow the slope of the roof. Nearby, the main bathroom has a secret room behind the medicine cabinet, with no other entrance or windows.
Mr. Seymour utilized his experience restoring historic structures to reverse the damage done to 53 Turner during years of neglect. (He earned an honourable mention from Heritage Toronto this week for his restoration of the Trinity Bellwood Park gates.)
Ms. Agnew's younger son, Robert Gordon Agnew, his wife, Mary Caldwell, and three children lived with the elderly woman for a few years before she died in 1942. Robert Gordon (he dropped the Agnew) inherited the home but left to teach at U.S. universities.
He divorced his wife, who stayed in the home on her own from 1952 to 1998, when she died at the age of 98.
He had tried to sell the house in 1964, but because of a legal loophole, his ex-wife gained control of it.The Seymours have preserved as many of the original elements as possible, but have had the house rewired, the plumbing and heating system updated, and the roof and drains replaced, and the chimney rebuilt. Laundry facilities were put in the unfinished basement.
"Nobody has said it feels like you're living in a museum here," Mr. Seymour says. "It's bright and shiny, [and] it's comfortable.The kitchen retains its original built-in, two-tiered ironing board, cabinetry, double cast-iron enamel sink and a dumb waiter to the basement. (The latter allowed Ms. Agnew to lower preserves to the cold cellar.) An electric range from the 1930s is in working condition.
"In our previous house, we had a fully fitted modern kitchen put in and suddenly we had no worktops in this house, so we didn't know where to put anything when cooking a big meal," Mr. Seymour says.
"Then we noticed all these hooks — rows and rows of hooks on the wall — and when we started using the hooks to hang things up, suddenly we had more space."
They also found antique enamel-topped tables at garage sales that double as a workspace and place to eat.
"When you tune in to the original way that the kitchen was used, and if you can adapt your own modern way of things, then there's no problem," he says. "You don't have to rip everything out."
Special to The Globe and Mail
