Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Suburban Cabin

Arson House in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Jul 19 2020

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 |  1
Recent status Arson
Location # 16620

Approaching the two-story house, half hidden by overgrown grass and spiked weeds, there is something almost enchanting about the stonework and tall trees, giving the impression of an old cabin deep in the woods, despite the suburban world surrounding the property. There are two smaller structures to the left of the home, although it seems like the larger one is full of wood and cannot be entered. The smaller one is full of trash and glass.

Inside the house, light creeps in only through holes punched through the wall, as all the ground floor windows have been boarded. There is a large piece of graffiti in the main room of the house. This room also leads to the basement, which seems explorable although the air quality is horrendous. There is an odd abundance of fireplaces, but the ground floor is otherwise relatively empty. The second floor is accessible by a narrow stairway. It is unfinished and well lit by a number of windows, broken and unbroken, still sporting yellow product labels. Around the back of the house is a patio overlooking the backyard. From here you can enter another small room, inaccessible from the front of the house, as the interior door has been boarded up. Among the beer cans and trash I was surprised to find it contained a functioning upright piano, albeit significantly damaged.

It seems like development may possibly start soon, as within the last few visits to the property I found that the overgrowth on the paths to the front and back of the house had been mowed down.


From JamesDDD145: The house is next to a sub-division and is on a well-travelled arterial road. As long as you stay discrete, however, you should be fine. There is no security or anything of the sort. The interior of the house, however, does have many sharp objects in it. There is also the possibility that the house contains asbestos, so a respirator may be advised if you intend to actually enter the house.


This house has stood where it is for many years, and was inhabited as recently as 2015. Some time after its residents moved out and it has lay abandoned ever since. In Spring of 2022, the house was lit on fire by arsonists or vandals. The fire was quickly put out, but this has left the house partially burnt and blackened and with a collapsed roof. The house originally had a second floor, but after it was caught on fire the second floor collapsed. In mid to late 2022, weak fencing was put up around the house to deter visitors, but this fencing has now been bust open by people wanting to get a closer look. The exterior garage building was also boarded up.


This location consists of a short pocket of woodland with a house, shed, and separated garage. The driveway to the house is just off of Major MacKenzie.

\n The garage to the building has no fencing around it but in late 2022 was boarded up with wood, now leaving it inaccessible. Prior to this, the doors were fully open and the inside of the garage had lots of storage shelves and debris. There were also spray cans in it left over from previous vandals. The garage is covered in graffiti from local teenagers that often visit the location. In front of the house there is also a shed which is in very rough condition. The shed is emptied out and has holes in the walls.

\n The house itself was originally two stories, but the second story collapsed after it caught on fire. It is unknown if the house has a basement, and it is filled with debris that make parts of it practically inaccessible. The damaged parts of the house are blackened from fire damage. The left side of the house is still relatively intact with little damage to it. There is a working piano inside one of the rooms of the house, and possibly still some furniture.

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7 months ago

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8 months ago

Just today(March 26th 2024) there is a construction fence that is blocking entrance to the house from Major Mackenzie so the only way you can there now is if you climb from the fence in the neighbourhood street behind the property. However, I would advise against this as there is construction crews in the area who will catch you doing this. Not sure about this as there is a company called Kenaidan who put up fence? I am wondering how they are involved because when I was looking around at documents I did not find Kenaidan anywhere.

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1 year ago

For the longest time I couldn't find the actual address of this property. That was until I was looking around on PLANit and noticed it was on there (2057 Major Mackenzie Drive). It looks like this property is eventually going to be redeveloped with townhouses put on it. It also looks like the building will be retained as it's a heritage building, although I'm not sure how that'll work now that it's been partially destroyed from a fire. I also found these two old photos of the house when I put the address into Google: https://thumbnails.zoocasa.com/9904510-2057-major-mackenzie-dr-vaughan-on-N126258/photo-1.jpg https://cdn1.zoocasa.com/images/listings/6fb2cf3a-9288-43e4-9a20-ba44424d7fda.jpg So from what it seems, the second story wasn't actually a part of the house originally, but was added later on. I looked at satellite imagery, and I think it was added on around 2012, which is quite recent in the grand scheme of things. There isn't a second floor anymore, so it really didn't last long.

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1 year ago

Update #2, this website has the exact blueprints for what the redevelopment is planned to look like: https://f.tlcollect.com/fr2/318/46655/sold_web_2057_Major_Mackenzie_Dr._W.pdf The blueprints show the suburban cabin right there in the middle, so I think it's safe to say it's not going to be getting demolished. Though people might end up inhabiting it once again eventually. Also, even though it's going to be restored, the second floor does not appear to be returning. So R.I.P to that. Interestingly, blueprints call it the "Joshua Oliver House" which is the first I've heard of that. So I did some even more digging using the new name, and according to a commenter on a historical blog, this house was made in 1837, putting it at 186 years old. One more reason why I hate to see people vandalize sites.

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1 year ago

yeah. It's horrible that people burnt it and all, but I'm glad it will be better preserved

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1 year ago

went to the place last week, the garage had some of it's boarding ripped off, don't wanna go in though haha

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1 year ago

The boarding must have been ripped off very recently. I was there a few weeks ago and it was still on. Looks like the property is for sale right now so if it gets sold it's eventually going to be developed on. I finally went inside too and the place is destroyed inside. I'll upload some more pictures.

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1 year ago

I want to get into the garage, and I am for sure not going in the basement without a mask, flashlight and a couple of buddies heh. I'll try and upload some pictures off my phone if I do!

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1 year ago

beautiful. I'll check it out later today

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1 year ago

I feel like this location would be better suited to Level 2 than Level 1. Level 2 is described as "Well known locations, heavy vandalism, relatively low risk to visitors." which is a perfect description of this place right now.

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1 year ago

Woah, I didn't know this location was already on here until my albums got moved here instead. I'm glad to hear my suspicion of a basement was true. It's a shame that the house burned down, as the second floor is completely gone now, and the fire department or a construction crew cleared most of the trees and vegetation surrounding the house. Luckily this place doesn't seem like it's going anywhere soon. The construction crew that appeared after the fire has not returned since, and the place is not even boarded up or anything. Well, it's weird that the boards got put back up on the garage, but not the house.