The century-old house has remained nearly unchanged over the decade.Scott Bennett/Scott Bennett/Bizzimage
83 Lytton Blvd., Toronto
Asking Price: $3,595,000
Taxes: $12,676.57 (2022)
Lot Size: 50- by 132-feet
Agent: Peter Ricketts, Royal LePage Real Estate Services, Johnston & Daniel Division
The backstory
The Toronto neighbourhood known today as Lytton Park was carved from a 200-acre farm lot granted to the United Empire Loyalist John MacDougall.
Long before that, a Wendat village dated to 1450 stood on the land. The Indigenous history of the area suggests the settlement was likely surrounded by agricultural land growing corn, squash and beans.
By the late 1800s and early 1900s, the large farm estates of North Toronto were gradually being subdivided into neighbourhoods with parks, sunken gardens and new houses lining the streets.
The Lytton Park neighbourhood was conceived in 1886 when the Metropolitan Street Railway began a one-horse carriage service to the area, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.
In 1912, the City of Toronto annexed the Town of North Toronto, bringing more services to the area.
As the population burgeoned, John Ross Robertson Public School was built in 1921 and named for the newspaper publisher and philanthropist who founded the Evening Telegram.
Around that time, Henry and Elizabeth Lawrence were watching the city encroach on their own farm in the midtown Toronto area that surrounds the intersection of Mount Pleasant Road and Davisville Avenue today.
Mr. Lawrence had inherited the farm from his father, Robert Lawrence, who emigrated to Canada from England in 1867 and built the red-brick Victorian farmhouse that still stands at 448 Davisville Ave.
The Lawrences decided to retire from farming and move to a new house with their daughter Mary, who attended Branksome Hall. She would later tell younger generations that she felt embarrassed arriving at school with mud on her boots from the farm.
Mr. Lawrence bought a plot of land on Lytton Boulevard and hired a pair of brothers who had recently made a name for themselves building the Capitol Theatre on Yonge Street.
William and Harson Bell, known as the Bell Brothers, were immigrants from Northern Ireland. They used horses to help dig the basement and built the sturdy house, with walls of double brick, by hand. The brothers handcrafted the substantial doors, wood trim and 10-inch baseboards.
The Lawrences continued to live at the farmhouse on Davisville until the construction at 83 Lytton Blvd. was complete in 1924.
The Lawrence family had a newly completed residence and Mary had an admirer. In 1927, she married the builder William Bell.
The house today
Home of the Week, 83 Lytton Blvd., TorontoScott Bennett/Scott Bennett/Bizzimage
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The descendants of Henry and Elizabeth Lawrence have lived at 83 Lytton Blvd. ever since.
A photograph still in the home shows the property surrounded by cornfields soon after it was built.
Mary and William Bell went on to have two children who both attended John Ross Robertson.
After their daughter Eileen married David Stock and began to have children of her own, her mother suggested she take over the family homestead.
The property has remained nearly unchanged over the decades, says Elizabeth Stock, who grew up in the home with her brother Gordon and sister Janet. All three siblings also attended John Ross Robertson.
Ms. Stock did learn of a few changes to the home over the decades: In the 1920s, ice would be delivered to the home and funnelled through a small window into the ice room near the kitchen. As food storage and refrigeration improved, that room was converted to a powder room.
In the 1930s, two porches on the rear façade were replaced with enclosed sunrooms.
The separate single-car garage was doubled to a two-car garage during the same decade.
In the 1970s, the Stocks upgraded the electrical and plumbing systems and had a new kitchen installed. One of the workers was a much younger member of the Bell Brothers, Andy Bell.
Ms. Stock says her mother, Eileen, died in early 2022 and her father, David, moved to a retirement home a few months later. The house was recently listed for sale with an asking price of $3,895,000.
Real estate agent Peter Ricketts of Royal LePage Real Estate Services, Johnston & Daniel Division, says it became apparent after several days on the market that the land was more attractive to potential buyers than the century-old house.
Many of the vintage houses on the street have been torn down and replaced.
The asking price was reduced to $3.595-million and the house sold after about one month on the market for $3.4-million.
Mr. Ricketts says the buyer plans to demolish the home and build something new.
The best feature
The location close to John Ross Robertson Junior Public School and other highly-ranked public and private schools make the area popular with families. The shops, cafés and restaurants of Yonge Street are nearby and the subway line quickly whisks commuters to the downtown core.
Carolyn Ireland