Bird bath designer, musician, gardener, and decorator all lived here

By Mike Mastromatteo

It’s a sad visage greeting the traveller passing by the abandoned, crumbling house on the east side of Bathurst Street, just north of Dupont Street.

The house at 1177 Bathurst St. is a grand foursquare redbrick home with a rounded arch entryway and a small dormer window peeking out from the apex. Daylight streaming through openings in the roof indicate not all is well with the home.

Given the predominance of Victorian and Edwardian designs, foursquare-style buildings were a rarity for turn-of-the-century Toronto homes. Although the foursquare style was criticized for its lack of adornment, it won favour for its functionality, affordability, and more efficient use of interior space. 

Nonetheless, 1177 Bathurst St., a home that has quietly sheltered dozens of families, guests, and lodgers over the last 120 years, is nearing the end of its days. It has been abandoned and boarded up for the last several months, and in an eerie tableau, the house appears to lean slightly to the left, indicating to the wistful that the house is aware its time is up. 

This could be the last opportunity to tell of its history.

The building at 1177 Bathurst St. was constructed around the year 1905. It was the home of George and Lydia Plumb, English immigrants who arrived in Canada in 1885. George Plumb was a gardener by trade. He and Lydia were parents to daughter Marion (born 1906), son Noel (born 1911), and the youngest girl Audrey (born 1911). 

Sadly, the 1921 Canadian census does not list Audrey Plumb along with the rest of the Plumb family at 1177 Bathurst. Given the high incidence of infant mortality in the early part of the 20th-century, one might assume young Audrey Plumb did not live long. Did the walls of this home absorb any of these unhappy emanations?

However, there were some happy moments for the Plumb family at the home. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported on April 5, 1923, that Noel Plumb, then about 12 years old, won a share of the $150 prize money in the Canadian Society for the Protection of Birds contest for designing bird baths, bird houses, and bird drawings. Noel and some of his classmates from the Hillcrest Manual Training Centre impressed the judges with their “cement pedestal bird bath.”

We don’t know much else about Noel Plumb’s post-1177 Bathurst life, but he did survive until April 17, 1990—passing away at age 79.

And the oldest daughter, Marion, would go on to another small but treasured moment. The March 10, 1948 edition of The Globe and Mail mentioned Marion’s performance as a soloist at the 23rd anniversary of the Park School Old Girls’ Association. 

An odd quirk comes to the fore in researching the history of 1177 Bathurst St. It seems there was more than one gardener named George Plumb in Toronto from 1900 to 1925 or so. In addition to the George Plumb at 1177 Bathurst, there was another George Plumb, gardener, who in 1905 resided at 778 Yonge Street, and later at 20 Blake Street.

In any case, Lillian Plumb, George’s widow, resided at 1177 Bathurst St. until the mid-to-late 1930s. Following the Plumbs, 1177 Bathurst St. became home to George McFadden, a painter and decorator. McFadden, born 1882, resided at 1177 Bathurst for only about four years before the home went to his widow Edna, who shared the property with friend Nora Armstrong and lodger George Allen. Allen worked as a driver/dispatcher for the Toronto Daily Star, and it’s a safe bet he carried home free copies of the newspaper for the landlord.

Nora Armstrong hung on until 1963, after which the home began its slow transformation to a rooming house. A duplex to let classified ad appeared on Nov. 5, 1963, and again on Jan. 10, 1974, this latter one asking for $170 per month in rent.

Rental ads would appear periodically over the next 33 years, with the monthly rent appreciating along the way. By 2007, the rent climbed to $1100 per month. By today’s affordable housing challenges, paying $1100 a month for such a large, well-located property is only to dream of.

Although there would be new owners and tenants over the years, the property’s sad decline was in evidence by the mid-1980s. Hastening its fall, was a Sept. 28, 2025 fire in the home’s upper floors. Firefighters had to cut holes in the roof to extinguish the flames. The house was unoccupied at the time, but it is rumoured squatters had gained entry and were responsible for the fire.

In 2019, Makow Architects announced plans for a new development, the Annex Lofts, at the northeast corner of Bathurst Street and Bridgman Avenue. This would have involved the demolition of 1177 Bathurst St. and adjacent properties. Although the plans never came to fruition, other developers no doubt are planning their next moves.

Meanwhile, a sheet of paper taped to the front porch of the building might be the death knell for 1177 Bathurst St. Addressed to the property’s trustees, the paper is an unsafe building notice from the city’s building inspection department. There are problems with the joists, walls, and the very foundation. The building may or may not be physically revived but the memory will always remain of the ones who lived there.

READ MORE:

• IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: Once upon a time at 27 Follis Ave. (Feb. 2026)
• IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: So many rich and diverse lives lived in these twin houses (Jan. 2026)
• IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: Before the Maddy was a pub it was a mansion (Dec. 2025)
• IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: 351 Palmerston Blvd. (Oct./Nov. 2025)
• HISTORY: If these walls could talk (Sept. 2025)