58 CHERRY ST
The Essentials
A four bedroom house in the fruit belt with a two-storey in-law suite to one side. Separate meters, separate yards.
The Bigger Picture
Apparently there used to be a garage attached to the side of 58 Cherry St, sort of like a limpet, but as imagined in Minecraft, something built of blockish pixels and shades of white.
Which would be a weird way to open the conversation about the house, if it wasn’t for the fact that that garage was at some point converted into a really great two-storey in-law suite, with its own yard. How sweet is that? How helpful when the in-laws actually visit, for instance. Or the bank balance drops too low and you think to yourself, How the hell do I make a few bucks?
The house seems older than “attached garage” would suggest. When I’ve finished writing this I’ll pull the MPAC report and check it against my instincts, which suggest a carriageway would be more likely, a way around back for the coal carts and the rumbling carriages.
That sense that this is an old house is reinforced in the main building, with its modest ceiling heights and 19th century sensibilities. I grew up outside Oxford, England, and I recognise this spatial compression. It’s familiar to me, and oddly comforting.
None of which is to suggest this is a tiny house. It’s just a character-full one. A cottage. A home that is as comfortable lined with antiques as it is mid-century teak. There is a smart and comfortable kitchen at the back of the house, away from all the hubbub. There are three bedrooms up above, and a fourth down below. You add the apartment and the price per bedroom is impressive.
We see 58 Cherry St as having wide appeal. First-time buyers who thought the Fruit Belt neighbourhood was forever out of reach for them will want to visit. And others who haven’t found anything at all downtown in these low-inventory months. Investors too. We see them all being drawn to the two separate gardens, and the easy parking.
A heads-up that it needs reshingling. The west side particularly. But then you can relax a bit, ponder the history of the neighbourhood, its tangled webs of incident and geography.
A Gallery
