Abandoned mansions: Inside one of Canada’s biggest houses which has sat eerily empty for 15 years
Envisioned to be a lakeside palace, now one of this country’s largest homes sits abandoned, with broken windows, unfinished floors — and even a waterfall underneath it.
Once envisioned as a luxurious lakeside palace, one of the largest homes in Canada now sits abandoned, with broken windows and unfinished floors serving as eerie reminders of what could have been.
The Peter Grant mansion, sprawling across more than 6,300 sqm on the shores of Lake Temiskaming in Ontario, has been left to rot for more than 15 years.
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The once-grand estate was the brainchild of Peter Grant, the former president of Grant Forest Products, who dreamt of creating an amazing retreat, according to The Post.
The plans included over-the-top features like a subterranean boathouse, an art gallery and even a private golf course.
But those grand designs were shattered by the 2008 financial crisis.
Construction came to a screeching halt, and the property was never completed.Grant’s company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, leaving the colossal structure an empty shell, with half-finished walls and floors that never saw use.
Despite its abandoned state, the mansion has gained fame as Canada’s largest residence, but aside from its sheer size, what’s inside the mansion now is far from a dream.
Instead, scattered construction debris and graffiti tell the story of a project left in ruins.
The massive home was listed for a jaw-dropping $38.4m (US$25m), even though it’s far from liveable.
A Toronto-based company eventually bought the estate, but in 2023, it was reported that very little had changed beyond some security upgrades.
In an effort to stop curious onlookers from exploring the crumbling mansion, security cameras and fences were installed.
But the intrigue around the decaying home remains strong.
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“Folks come into town, and they want to know where it is and [ask if they can] go have a look,” Temiskaming Shores mayor Jeff Laferriere said in 2023.
So how much would it cost to clean it all up and complete the dream?
Estimates to finish the mansion hover around $1.5m (US$1m), but whether it will ever be completed or simply left to decay is still unclear.
For now, it remains an eerie monument to ambition gone wrong.
“It’s hard to even comprehend how much is still left behind here,” Founder of Toronto-based Bright Sun Films Jake Williams said in a video tour of the mansion.
“Since this building got so far in construction, many of the exterior and interior fittings were near completion,” Mr Williams said.
“Utilities were even in a working state by the time of abandonment.”
Although the property boasts distinctive elements, such as a massive waterfall beneath the mansion, its deterioration has turned it into an eyesore for the local community, with graffiti increasingly covering both the exterior and interior walls.
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Originally published as Abandoned mansions: Inside one of Canada’s biggest houses which has sat eerily empty for 15 years