Cabbagetown Annual Tour of Homes

Every once in a while it helps to have an architect in the family.

When John White (who is an architect) and Gilles Huot (who isn’t) decided to abandon condo living on Carlton St. for a cozy 1884 bay ‘n gable townhouse on Metcalfe St. in Old High Cabbagetown about five years ago, Huot told his partner, “ok, but here’s the list of what I’d like to do to the house.” His injunction was dutifully complied with during major renovations last year and they are now ready to show the newly refurbished home to the public by participating in the Cabbagetown Tour of Homes on Sept. 19.

Although this is their first time in as a stop on the tour, they’ve been active participants in the Cabbagetown Preservation Association for some time already.

“I’ve been on the board of CPA since January,” says Huot, “and the Tour of Homes is our big fundraiser so of course we’re proud to participate. What we find happens with Cabbagetown is that a lot of people have a lot of pride in their neighbourhood, you only have to walk on the streets and look at the gardens to see that. We made the renovation last year and felt that we should be in.”

They are very content with the results of the renovation. “One of our neighbours told us, ‘You know, you have managed to make your house look like what everybody wants these houses to look like,’” says Wright. “It’s modern in its wide-open spaces, but it’s traditional in detail.”

They have preserved most of the original layout and many of the original architectural features including the main staircase and newel post—“every time we touch it going upstairs we feel a connection with this neighbourhood’s history”—and the brass armature around the coal-burning fireplace which is learning to like a greener diet. They have also been lucky to preserve most of the original stained glass windows, a hallmark of the era. Each has a bird in its central panel.

“Ralph Lauren would have said, every man should have a bird in the house,” says Huot, “and we have several.”

The renovations include a new third-storey master bed/bath converted from an attic with drop-down ladder access (which must have perplexed generations of slightly tipsy student roomers under previous administrations). The new staircase upstairs actually features a newel post rescued from the house next door.

The house also boasts a “streamlined” modern kitchen, and a lovely secluded garden between the house and the old driving shed (now commonly known as a “garage”). Thanks to some engineering legacy issues, the job at times resembled a Near Eastern archaeological dig.

“It got interesting,” said Huot. “We’re the north half of a duplex, but our house is four feet lower than the neighbouring half. Besides that, only the front of the house has a real, original foundation and full basement. The rear was built on wood piles and it sank. The piles had rotted away from six feet to three inches. At one point the studding had come right away from the floor joists and all that was holding the place together was the quarter-round. We jacked up the rear of the house and put a four-foot crawl space underneath it joined to the basement.”

“There was a little crawl space there before. My mother thought it was really creepy,” says White. “She kept wondering if there were bodies in there. Actually when we were putting in the crawl space we found two pairs of very old skis and a TV remote control. No idea at all how that got there. When we were digging down the north side wall, the entire outside ground was full of coal—there’d been a coal chute there—and it looked hard when you dug it out but we made a big pile of it and it melted in the sunlight. We also found an old cast-iron toy airplane and the coffin of the dog that someone had buried in the back yard. We imagined there might be some priceless grave goods in there but we decided, unlike Pandora, not to go opening any boxes.”

The cumulative sinkage has had a visible effect on the back garden. Originally the owners could look out the back window onto level ground, and it was a few steps up from the kitchen to the yard. The result of the reno is a delightful terraced effect upward to the driving shed.

Huot and White are very proud of the integrated townhouse architecture on the street. They considered removing the stucco on their own brickwork but decided not to, as the brick is hidden under layers of paint beneath the stucco and restorations of neighbouring houses have shown the local brickwork to be brittle.

“These were actually rooming houses for years, and they just stuck one coat of paint on after another,” says White. “The street was really seedy for a long time and was thought to be one of the most dangerous in the neighbourhood. I remember my mother telling me as a kid, ‘Don’t go up Metcalfe St.!’”

It’s advice worth musing on—if only for nostalgia’s sake—as you visit the quiet, residential avenue on the Tour of Homes.

The tour takes place on Sept. 19. For information and tickets, visit www.cabbagetownpa.ca or call (416) 921-0857.

Source

Don’t forget we still have our contest open for your chance to win a ticket to the Cabbagetown Tour of Home this year.  Subscribe here for your chance to win.

Following are some great establishments where you can purchase your tickets from.  Tickets are $30 each:

• Buy Tickets online through PayPal at http://www.cabbagetownpa.ca
• Mi Casa, 238 Carlton Street, 416-929-1913
• KENDALL & CO, Décor & Design, 438 Parliament Street, Toronto 416-363-9914
• Jamestown Steak & Chops, 516 Parliament St. 416-925-7665
• Sheridan Nurseries– Yonge Street North location only – 2827 Yonge St. 416-481-6429
• Lady Bug Florist, 513 Church St. 416-922-9971
• Cabbagetown BIA, 237 Carlton St. 416-921-0857