Toronto's Fake Houses

Toronto has a collection of fake houses scattered throughout the city, hiding in plain sight. Come along to find out what they are and why they're here!
00:00 Introduction
00:19 Leaside
01:28 The Danforth
02:00 Victoria Village
03:15 Brimley Road
05:39 Duncan Substation
05:54 The Danforth again
06:22 Glengrove Sub-station
07:43 Yonge & Eglinton
08:27 Final Stop
Geoff Marshall's New York fake house video (mentioned in my video): • New York's Fake House 🇺🇸
#Toronto #FakeHouses #UrbanHistory

[@TheTrolleyPole]

One day, by chance, the tall wooden doors of the Glengrove Sub-station were open so I could peek inside from the sidewalk. The interior looked like that of an old factory, that had only a partial roof.

[@examplelife1567]

Substations were factories

[@quadmods]

My friend worked at Toronto Hydro in the mid 90’s. He was tasked with assessing and preparing for sale dozens of “fake” houses and buildings. He had a 3 ring binder with every property they owned. Like a little info sheet for each one with black and white pictures and lot dimensions. When I would visit the binder was like a coffee table book I would browse with great interest. Cheers 👍

[@da_SpiffR]

The castle-like building is spectacular! I'm loving (or at least liking) all your videos, and really appreciate the historical information.

[@pineo81]

I left Nova Scotia in 2006 for Toronto, spent 10years in Edmonton. now back in the GTA. I still get so confused when my partner say the "Hydro bill" went up again. 18 years and I still think it means water! I don't recognise Toronto anymore with all those ugly condo buildings. Awesome video!

[@zdrux]

I've never left Toronto and I still don't recognize it.

[@123benny4]

I pass through Toronto on my way home and don't recognize it.

[@Roddy556]

I mean, you're not wrong.

[@doeeyes2]

​@@zdrux same! Its so depressing.

[@73cidalia]

Yeah. Short for hydroelectric because of the historical production of electricity using the power of Niagara Falls. I don't know if it's the same in Toronto, but in Hamilton our electric and water fees come on one bill.

[@transportationland6395]

Amazing content. I love your content like this, along with the trail history content. Keep up the quality work!

[@EyeGlassTrainofMind]

That's really interesting! Especially to hear about how as technology has evolved, these false houses are in less demand. I wonder what the newer solution(s) are? Also, nice connection between Sir Henry and potentially the Glengrove Sub-station.

[@TechOttawa]

Very cool - thanks for sharing. I'll never forget stumbling on a bunch of these on a walk from Manhattan to Gowanus Brooklyn - my path followed the train route and I found several styles of 'fake house' along a very fascinating route in a place I had only read about before. Amazing!

[@HannahandCailinLoesch]

I'm glad I came across this! It inspired a Google search and now I know that they are all over our city, NYC, too! Really interesting stuff. Thank you!!

[@samw5082]

Great stuff! Could listen to you nerd out about Toronto lore for hours!

[@cherylmills150]

Excellent! Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and knowledge about "Fake Houses"!

[@8252001Maverick]

OMG I did not know this. I sometimes pass that Victoria Park library not aware a fake house is just there. Fascinating 🧐

[@dariusanderton3760]

Yonge & Eglinton = Young & Eligible 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@AK.__]

Outstanding! Thank You! I knew that something "wrong" with the house on Yonge / Glengrove and thought that the plate is masking something else. The building on Eglinton / Duplex has very tall doors, like in MIB movie.

[@nicolasarenas8988]

Great Video! You might want to add some shots from a tripod or from a first person view of the shots you're showing us! Just something that might increase your views! Thanks for all the insightful information!

[@Terry11111]

That was pretty cool. Thanks for sharing 👍

[@gh0stinthec1ty]

Yonge and Eligible lol

[@SaturnCanuck]

Great video sir. Living in Scarborough I am familiar with many of them and saw them many times. I recently found your channel and I have subscribed, and I also follow Geoff Marshall and Tim Traveler (who are friends BTW). I await more from you.

[@notsmoothsteve]

Tim recently provided some music for one of Geoff's videos :-)

[@deedunk8383]

Great video! I learned something new. Thanks!

[@jim8199]

Great content, I always want to know more about torontos past, especially anomalies around the city that I have wondered about. Mystery solved 👍

[@bobbydigital8243]

I worked at a restaurant in Eglinton and Bathurst, behind my work was a neighborhood called Forrest hill, one of the most richest neighborhoods in the city with really big fancy houses. One day I decided to walk to work and walk back home after and I noticed a home just as nice as everyone else. but without curtains. and you could see a green box (the same ones you see outside) inside and bunch of transformers. That always was so strange to me until now, thank you.

[@Bookmarkerer]

Interesting and entertaining, thanks and the best to you.

[@SeemsLikeSomething]

I remember as a kid, growing up down in the Niagara region, my dad once pointed out a hydro house and ever since I find them really easy to spot because of the lack of any plants or gardens that require much upkeep, and there’s usually just one kind of window covering for every window.

[@justnski]

There's a fake house just down the street from me on Royal York Road...good to know it still has some relatives

[@sscbkr48]

That's nothing.. Vancouver is full of fake people. 😄

[@raisage]

Thanks for another really interesting and enjoyable video!

[@notsmoothsteve]

You're welcome. Thank you for your support!

[@raisage]

@@notsmoothsteve Thanks for all your great informative videos!

[@AlanKelly-nm9lx]

I will leave this here also.. wow u know so little about Toronto but so much at the same time hahah meth labs and crack houses are always run by csis/rcmp, they cook all their meth at 105 Isabella st and at 888 Bloor st run the cocaine/ after hours drugs mostly in kennington Market and all conducted by csis agent Bain Coote who lives at 1032 Dovercourt RD! lol I think you need a real education on the streets my friend. Still do enjoy your video's tho.........

[@campsitez2355]

1:52 what would be wrong with your neighbor turning their house into an air bnb exactly?

[@TheeSlickShady]

Liked and subbed 🏆 Excellent video

[@mitchellyates9397]

There is also a fake Toronto Hydro house at 59 Dalegrove Crescent, just off of Martin Grove and Eglinton, in the neighborhood to the southwest of that intersection. It backs onto the hydro-cut running between the Richview transformer station and the AW Manby transmission station.

[@ORGANIZEDCoNfUsioN]

Very cool Steve. Love those fake houses.

[@kikastra]

I used to be fascinated by these when I was a kid. The first one I remember seeing is the one at St. Clair and Pharmacy, which has been gone for awhile now.

[@Chrishm0]

the Glengrove station reminds me of Havergal college (Avenue Road)

[@sangomoon5456]

I like this channel :)

[@TheeSlickShady]

"This is Not the house you’re looking for" ... that got the Like👍🏼

[@spears104]

Very interesting!

[@DUDE72341]

awesome video thanks

[@Jake-co3wk]

Very interesting. Thanks

[@HavokBWR]

I lived behind one of these while growing up! The back of ours had a fence so you couldnt see any of the equipment. It was a nice little shortcut to get to the highschool/ mall, so wed occasionally see some of the local kids cutting though our yard to cut through the fake house.

[@WilliamAshleyOnline]

So much Toronto history --- did you ever do a video on the secret subway stations that are used by the military in Toronto, the cold war sites?

[@monicapushkin3274]

There is the house at the north entrance of Spadina Station on Spadina Road .... a real old Annex house which is now sort of a fake house.

[@notsmoothsteve]

Keep your eyes on my channel in the coming months - that house will be making an appearance in a video, probably before spring!

[@wayfaringspacepoet]

Sabrina Cruz and her colleagues at Answer in Progress also made a video exploring fake houses, around the same time you described

[@demijour1234]

I live in TO and WOW!! did not even know this. LOL, learned something new. Thanks 🥰 So, there is no inside? If you peek inside the window what will you see?

[@raydunn2582]

I was aware of these hidden electrical stations but didn't realize there were so many. The only one I know of is/was on Scarlet Rd. just S of Lawrence Ave.

[@WeeCarBoot]

Surprised you did not include the truly massive one on the east side of Carlaw just south of the railway bridge at Gerrard. It's also tastefully done, and resembles an old mill or warehouse, as do the other buildings (now condos) on that stretch of Carlaw.

[@mvd4436]

Cool video. The 1998 school science video music could be upgraded though

[@Aimaiai]

In my neighbourhood in Rexdale at martin grove and west humber the substation house has a really flat, completely unused paved concrete backyard which ive used on numerous occasions to practice skateboarding and other extreme sports as I grew up lol

[@MikeBaxterABC]

1:10 That would be so COOL to live next door! .. You could use the lawn for a soccer pitch, or pay toss across, I guess not archery practice, but you could set up any portable accuracy throw or pitching net! :), maybe even a picnic table?? Just having the big space with no neighbour there would be a belfit!! .. So cool!!

[@thetiredtourist3927]

The fake house at Brimley and Lawrence was across the road from Eastside Plaza (a favourite local hang out in the 60's and early 70's) and was dubbed "The Resort". People would chill on the front steps.

[@bladder1010]

There's a really nice fake house at the corner of Kipling and Hunting Ridge in Etobicoke, right around the corner from where I grew up. We always wondered what it looked like inside.

[@doeeyes2]

Hey neighbour... or former neighbour 😉 ive lived in this area all my life.

[@captainjoshuagleiberman2778]

My first encounter with a fake house was one on Spadina, jjust north of Forest Hill Village. A friend of mine lived just north of it and one day i was passing it and there were Toronto Hydro workers there and they left the door open, it was fascinating until they told me to leave.😂

[@babbybailey2534]

I knew about these, but, didn't know the hydro company had them built. I thought they were already first established as residential family homes. Cool.

[@IanPattisonOakville]

I'm surprised you didn't include the one on the west side of Bay just north of Nathan Phillips.

[@TheFirefox]

There was a fake hydro house in East York that I always used to walk past. I think it was torn down and replaced with a real house about 6-7 years ago.

[@Youngsta0]

Hydro power is still significant for our grid, 25% might not seem like much. What I was told, they use the windmills to help pump the dams capacity up.

[@RivieraUnivox]

In Victoria BC at the corner of Government and Bay is a cool Art Deco building that was once a hydro substation that was converted to office space in the 70s. 561 Worthington street in North Bay Ontario is a fake house substation.

[@dallasgrful]

I lived next to an air ventilation building for CN that was disguised as a house for a rail track underground in Burnaby, BC.

[@72chargerse72]

Thanks that was interesting..

[@davidgray3294]

I am not sure if you missed one, I did some work in a building in where I think still considered Parkdale, beautiful old building, and felt odd when inside as it was pretty much empty except for a couple transformers - Toronto had some odd voltages earlier on in our life

[@notsmoothsteve]

There are dozens of them scattered throughout the city - far too many to include in the video!

[@younghokim1994]

Wow, I never knew why electricity was called hydro in Ontario. TIL! And I totally know where the one torn down is, that's River and Oak area iirc.

[@blacksoulll4327]

Thought you would do the ttc building around 460 Lansdowne Ave

[@grahammonk8013]

At one time I worked on a fake church in London. Actually, it isn't fake, it was built as a church, but is now the vent for a London underground pressure relief tunnel.

[@Xathian]

The R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant was the shady office building for Ezra in the movie Nightmare Alley

[@TheBurningSkull-ix1nm]

i live near lawrence east and brimley and i have never thought about that weird looking house until now.

[@bodgerdavesumner]

There are many in Hamilton too. They are always a little posh looking & very well maintained. The ones that I know are detailed with beautiful stonework.

[@catherineannelockman3805]

I lived in Hamilton most of my life...where?...

[@bodgerdavesumner]

@@catherineannelockman3805 West side of Kenilworth near Maple. North side of Kin, west of Parkdale.

[@McGoogger]

Love the hydro stations. There’s another fake house in forest hill just north of kilbarry on Spadina rd

[@m1t2a1]

There's one in my old neighbourhood at 46 Malamute in Agincourt. Hydro.

[@HeadlessChickenTO]

My maternal grandparent's home use to be across from a fairly large downtown substation on Huron st just south of College. The laneway right next to it is the home of the late former NDP leader Jack Layton and now mayor Olivia Chow. I use to play catch sometimes in the parking lot and lost a lot of balls that would roll under the big metal swinging doors, which probably housed the transformers.

[@danvetor1365]

A lot of the substation houses have been converted. Especially in smaller cities.

[@86hardluck]

I drove past most of those Brimley Road houses every day for 20 years.

[@vanessap7393]

I've seen fake houses with Bell logos as well. Also I swear I've seen a TTC-related fake house along Sheppard near Bessarion

[@AK.__]

There is one fake-looking Bell house in the Yonge Eglinton, just bit west on Eglinton, before Redpath. It doesn't look like functional. The doors are too high, all very dusty.

[@joywebster2678]

The " utility " fake house in Don mills I grew up by, had the electrical, but as time went by, Bell had a large silver access post? On its front lawn, and as a community we called it the utility house vs Hydro.

[@jlouutube65]

Interesting examples. We have a fake house covering up a pump station here in Bradford. I know I would not want to live next to a transformer that's for sure. ;)

[@konradpetz7317]

Hamilton has many of these as well. Some very nice Tudor style, some a little plain.

[@Gritt982]

Toronto needs to do something about the traffic congestion and commute times. We have longer commute times than any city in North America and we're by far not the biggest. Plus they like to tear down beautiful old buildings to put up lame condos with no character. It's not a nice place to live or work near. It used to be but it's been circling the drain for the past 12 years or so.

[@andywood5699]

The ground under these houses may be contaminated.

[@michelleburstrom2548]

I remember some of these very well.

[@Youngsta0]

Bell also does this ( london, ON) and hydro does aswell

[@michaelarrowsmith6906]

They have these in Hamilton as well.

[@keithmanfredi]

I love these types of buildings. I've seen them all around Southern Ontario.

[@terrystainton9105]

My grandad lived next door to one, corner of Bermuda and Prince Edward!

[@HanTheProphet]

these videos are oddly entertaining having grown up in the GTA

[@georgejones8784]

All the fake hydro houses that I've known about are now real houses. Interesting, as I always wondered about leeching chemicals, but I suppose the "house" would have contained most of it, and the rest would have been removed when the dirt was removed for the basement & foundation.

[@l.5832]

Here in British Columbia, we don't have fake houses. We have the ugly industrial substations!

[@examplelife1567]

Obviously it's not a real house. It doesn't look like a house, it simply looks like a facility that's been designed to blend into the neighbourhood it was originally planned for.

[@kngus]

Loving that segway music.

[@MikeBaxterABC]

7:13 Part of my job years ago was to help set up Conventions at hotels, there was a flat rate $15 to have electrical power run to your booth (A simple 15AMP 120VAC Extension cord). .... I told one of the both owners, if you want Hydro in your both, it's $15 extra. He was from the south of USA and replied "... and 'Hydro" would be? ... LOL it's like we didn't speak the same language.

[@frankgiansante]

Hamilton ontario has them as well

[@SailorGreenTea]

Interesting

[@joywebster2678]

Had a fake house end of our street in DonMills, not as fancy frontage.

[@johnnyvegas2015]

interesting...thanks

[@linaburon5672]

I m living in Montreal I will never understand Toronto way of living !Bizarre

[@chelseagirl278]

i lived there for 20 years tooo long and agree with you completely!

[@dariusanderton3760]

but surely these fake houses are nicer to look at than having an ugly industrial building in the middle of a residential street

[@unrulysue6927]

I've been to Montreal. The city is architecturally beautiful, but the people are really rude. I'm not even talking about how snotty some of them get if you speak English. I watched how they push and shove each other on the subway. Toronto has definitely changed since I worked there almost 40 years ago, but I still think the people are nicer.

[@jpp7783]

They are old power stations. They are not a lifestyle, a “way of living”. In fact most people don’t know they’re there.

[@MK-zh4jp]

640 Millwood is not in Leaside. It is in Davisville Village

[@Lucas-ho4ld]

You probably don't have to worry about these houses being bad neighbourhoods aside from them giving you tumours riddled with cancer.

[@LuhhRee]

There's another fake Toronto house at Kipling and Kingsview Blvd and another one at Islington and Elmhurst

[@FeVaR]

They are wrecking out 4kv transformer stations in favor of larger 28kv stations.

[@martinemjt]

the anti gentrifiers would freak if they knew. i think that s brilliant. thank you for the vid.

[@TanyaKatherine]

You're brave too get out and walk around in scarborough. I wish I was that brave. I miss what scarborough was like with all the German and Greek oldie restaurants but yeah..I hear about too much crime now.

[@TanyaKatherine]

6:58 looks like Havergal College

[@knux7]

tartaria built the hydroelectric stations at niagara falls. Real spill

[@ilfautdanser9121]

it isn't just Toronto, it's all over Ontario, probably Canada.

[@007Hutchings]

They are in Collingwood and Owen Sound as well

[@johnanderson9494]

4:49 He puts on a school teacher face for the whole video lol.

[@campsitez2355]

1:52 what would be wrong with your neighbor turning their house into an air bnb exactly?

[@unrulysue6927]

Ugh. Constant stream of strangers. Never knowing if they're going to be quiet or noisy and not able to do much about it because they don't live there. People believe they can do or act however they want because they're on vacation. No thanks!

[@rockerdad2]

Nice to see the big T.O. on the tubes here.. nice

[@GaMeZaHoY]

Its like that king of the hill episode