This unique house was constructed in 1956 on land owned by the Czepurnyj family (Ukranian) since 1952.

By 1978 ownership of the house was in the name of to Nadja Czepurnyj, wife of Alexander. In 2007, two of her children (Victor and Luba) were added to the title. Victor’s name was removed from the title in 2015 leaving ownership to daughter Luba. Luba moved back home after her father’s death (around 1990) to help her mother care for the house. The family resided in the house until 2021 when the property was sold for $2,125,000 to a development company.

The house contained four apartments. As for the unique shoe molds embedded in concrete, the creator of this unique design remains a mystery. The house was boarded up just days after our visit in spring of 2023.

Thank you to RP_Explorations for sharing this location with me.

Cell Phone Photos

YouTube Video

This abandoned house holds a little surprise inside … a Corvette Stingray. The garage is built into the house in such a way that it’s more like walking into another room than a garage. A garage door has been inserted into a portion of the house’s wall which has been cut out. There are trees growing outside of the garage door, and I’m not certain you could remove the car if you even wanted to.

There’s not much else of interest inside. I believe that the owners live next door in a modern home. Several people have expressed interest in claiming this vehicle but to date I’ve not disclosed the address. Some people believe the car would be rotting by this point while others believe it’s still salvagable.

Location found by the explorer known as Ground State, photos by TWP.

This Victorian-style building was built in 1897 as a $13,000 private home. At the time the price was six times the cost of nearby homes. The original owner was a man from Berlin named Jacob Kaufman, a successful businessman. Kaufman made his money in lumber and later footwear with the Kaufman Rubber Company.

The home was constructed with stone and hand crafted wood work. The second floor still has a built in desk where Kaufman could keep watch on his rubber factory down the hill. A billiards room on the main floor still has a service bell where drinks could be ordered for guests.

The home was turned into a funeral home on Christmas Day 1949 and operated until December 31, 2015. It was then put up for sale. The property is listed as a heritage property so much of it’s 19th century character will be saved.

The original construction of the house has posed a challenge for heating and cooling, there’s limited disability access and the electrical system is outdated. The attic has been cleaned out but it used to contain files on funerals dating back to the 1940’s.

The parent company that owns the funeral home chose to close operations and transfer the employees to their Westmount location which recently underwent a 9,000 square foot expansion.

There’s still electricity and the surrounding area is undergoing construction. The road in front of the building is torn up and not accessible. Several workers can be found working in the immediate area.

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An unusually shaped building that appears to have never been completed.

There’s a second building on the property which wasn’t accessible during my first visit, but has since been opened. There’s really not much more to be said about No Place Like Dome. 🙂

I explored this abandoned house in St. Charles, Ontario back in 2010. At that time I used a point and shoot camera and over the years the photos were bulk resized when I required more website disk storage. For this reason the resolution and size are somewhat poor.

This is what the house appeared like in 2010.

There are spray painted messages on the front of the house:
“This was my house and is not a marijuana grow operation. This is more OPP and shit town lies.“

“Messenger of death“

I returned to this house ten years later in May of 2020.

The result was as to be expected. The stereo system which included dual cassette deck, speakers, video tapes, and VCR player were gone. The furniture was scattered across the room. Chairs had been thrown into the walls. The front windows ha been smashed. Some no-talent loser by the name of ‘Frost’ had drawn graffiti on the walls and counter.

The stairs leading up to the side door had collapsed or been removed, and a support beam for the parking deck had snapped. There was very little left inside to see, except some tax return records. The owner of this house was Gilles Methe, who was born in 1947. I don’t know if he’s still alive.

The spray painted messages have been removed from the front of the house, which I could understand a neighbour doing. It was an eyesore.

A neighbour tells me, “The owner lost grip with reality and chased a car weilding an axe, as they used his driveway to turn around. The neighbour across the road is Diane and he would stand at the end of his driveway and yell at her as she tried to weed her garden. The whole ordeal occurred over the course of 8 months. He has been under strict observation for several years since.”

The painted message on the left side of the house:

There is 2 sides to story. My name: Gilles Methe. OPP (liars) accuse me of crimes I did not do. Judgement day is upon this town of vipers. Rolly [who threatens who] Neighbour Rolly says half my driveway is hisss. Diane say ‘this is my land’. Shit town Bruno Roy with O.P.P. (liars) steal my house threaten from O.P.P. (I will be charged when I go to pay taxes). Harass by ambulance, fire bugs and shit town scums.

The Polka Dot Door house is located in Richmond Hill. It was built in 1975. The design of the kitchen reflects the wacky colour schemes that were often used back then. The highlight of the house is most certainly the polka dot door itself, as modeled after the children’s show of the same name.

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The  Brady Bunch house was located in the City of Markham, Ontario. It was a four level split home constructed in 1960. The house remained largely unchanged since it’s construction, with the 60’s vibe evident even today.

The house is located on the grounds of another facility but can be seen from the road.

Inside you’ll find the floors have thick shag carpeting. A bedroom has yellow and white vertically striped wallpaper while another has a dotted ceiling and funky 60’s wallpapered walls.

The basement bar is made of diamond patterned vinyl. You can vision the parties that must have taken place here many years ago.

The house has since been demolished (2020).

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During the early 20th century long before 24-hour retailers and high speed internet, people were able to take the time to appreciate the simpler qualities in life. Loyal companionship wasn’t determined by the hundreds of people on your social media that you rarely spoke with. Companionship during those lonely nights came in the form of a loyal four legged friend. 

Victor Blochin

Victor P. Blochin was a major in the Russian Red Army. While fighting during the First World War he was captured and became a prisoner of war in Germany. One of his fellow captives was a man named Angus Campbell, who was the Lord of Dunstaffnage Castle in Scotland. Campbell befriended Blochin and told him about his West Highland (or Westie) breed of dogs that he kept at his castle. When the war ended Blochin travelled to Scotland to claim a dog that Campbell had set aside for him. The dog was named Snejka which means ‘Little White Snow Flake’. Blochin remained at the Scottish castle working as a gardener and groundskeeper until the 1920’s when he moved to Canada, along with a male (a son of Snejka’s) and a female Westie. 

Blochin settled in Aurora, Ontario and purchased land upon which he designed and built a stone house which he named Silverdale Farm. In 1927 he opened Bencruachan Kennels. 

Anne Elizabeth Wilson

Anne Wilzon first entered the publishing field after college. She worked in New York before moving to Canada and joining the Musson Book Company. She then transferred to the Maclean Publishing Company where she was associate editor of Canadian Homes and Gardens and Mayfair magazines. Wilson was the founding editor of Chatelaine Magazine, a position she resigned from when she married Victor Blochin in 1929.

Bencruachan Kennels would become one of the most respected dog breeding kennels in the world. Blochin won several awards for the dogs that were bred at the kennel and had a trophy named after him – The Victor Blochin Memorial Trophy.

The kennel had a cemetery located in the nearby forest which was used for burial of the couple’s pets. The couple erected a stone memorial that read, “Our Dear Pets: they lived happy and died beloved – Anne Elizabeth and Victor Blochin, 1933.”  

 

In time the cemetery became a public burial grounds for pets and known as “Happy Woodland”. Besides dogs and cats the cemetery contained the remains of birds, rabbits, a soldier’s horse and a monkey named Peter. The grounds were cared for; weeds were pulled and flowers planted. Elizabeth Anne would often invite the pet’s owners into their home for tea.

Caskets were sold for $50 and many prominent families buried their pets in the cemetery and purchased a granite headstone.

Besides raising West Highland Terriers, the couple also made and delivered special dog food. Blochin gave lessons in Russian and chess.

Before her marriage, as Elizabeth Wilson, Mrs. Blochin was a well known author of short stories and articles. She wrote a book titled “That Dog of Yours” published in 1941 by Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd.. The book dealt with the raising and care of dogs.  

Paranormal Experiences

According to Mrs. Blochin’s book there were paranormal experiences that occurred on the property. Several hundred animal lovers had attended a ceremony for the unveiling of a central monument. A visitor to the ceremony took a photograph of a flower filled grave marker.

Mrs. Blochin writes, “… On developing the negative, the photographer was amazed to see, clearly defined in the picture, the figure of a dog lying at the foot of the grave. She sent it to us with the query: ‘Is this the spirit of your Happy Woodland? It was the undeniable likeness of a dog, though there were no living dogs in the cemetery at the time.

When the photograph was shown to the owners of the grave, they immediately recognized it as being that of their small mongrel who had been buried a few months prior. The owners showed several photographs of the dog taken while it was alive and the resemblance was striking. 

Ghost Dog

In another story told in Mrs. Blochin’s book, a dog of hers named Solo had escaped from the kennel one afternoon. Thinking that the dog would return, the family sat down for their evening meal. A few minutes later the evening train roared past the houe. Mrs. Blochin saw Solo run past the dining room window and away from the railroad tracks. 

The next morning Mrs. Blochin set out with another dog in search of Solo. As she was passing through a wooded spot, Solo suddenly appeared. He trotted up to the other dog, and both wagged their tails, nuzzling each other. Solo was within a few feet of Mrs. Blochin, and there could be no possibility of a mistake in identification. 
Turning towards home, Mrs. Blochin was surprised to discover that Solo had disappeared.

When she arrived at the house, her husband hesitantly informed her that Solo’s body had just been discovered on the railroad tracks. The dog had apparently been killed by the prior night’s train.  

 

In 1975 Victor sold his kennel to two young men who continued operating a kennel on the property.. The new business operated until 2011 when it was closed to make way for a new municipal shelter. As part of the original agreement of the sale, Victor insisted that the land would always be used for the betterment of animal’s lives.  

The earliest markers are from the 1930’s and the latest marker is from about the year1975. It’s quite likely that the owners of these pets have also passed away. There’s no organization to the markers – you’ll find them everywhere. Forest growth has covered up many of them and we missed finding many of them during our visit. The actual number of graves will never be known however one visitor wrote that they’d seen at least 200 of them. It would be best to visit here in the spring before the weeds begin to grow.

The land is being proposed for the location of a 195-unit subdivision. The developer has agreed to honor any historic designation granted to the cemetery. Finding the location isn’t easy and rumour is that the locals don’t want it being found. The remoteness of this location means vandals could cause significant damage and given the uniqueness of this location, we’re choosing not to disclose the whereabouts. Even if you were to find the general area, it’s surrounded entirely by forest and the road leading in belongs to a private household. If you do manage to find this location, please remember that this is a place where people buried loved animals and it represents over 80 years of memories. Preserve don’t destroy.

It isn’t just animals buried on the property. A woman named Florence Capstick was a regular visitor to the kennel, and an avid animal lover. Although she had no pets of her own buried at Woodland Pet Cemetery, her will requested that her ashes be scattered over the grounds of the Woodland Cemetery.