The house at 4 Howard Street has been demolished - quite unfortunate that it could not be integrated within the development.

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I agree. I wonder why it wasn’t used? It could have been beautiful. It was quite a handsome old home.
It was in terrible shape, even before Lanterra (?) purchased, upzoned and flipped the North St. James Town lands. Part of the overall deal with the City to retain the other heritage buildings along Howard and at the corner of Sherbourne/Howard was that the applicant was allowed to demolish 4 Howard. Still, I think it should have been kept as well.
 
It was a fire hazard and despite ongoing attempts by Concert to secure the property, folks kept breaking in. It was going to turn into a 424 Wellington situation at any time.
 
I just remembered that house had been moved about 2 years ago from Howard St. However, there are definitely activities recently (note the new fencing taking up half of the already narrow sidewalk on a busy pedestrian route close to Sherbourne station). Maybe they'll move it with further back from the street.
 
It's weird that nearly 2 years ago they moved the house from Howard to Sherbourne, only to move it again a few metres back from the street. Why didn't they place the house at its current location the first time? I don't think they did any shoring /digging where the house is now. Sure, it may have looked weird to have the house set so far back from the street for years (until they were ready to construct the condo), but leaving such a decrepit house right on Sherbourne didn't exactly do wonders to the street either.
 
It's weird that nearly 2 years ago they moved the house from Howard to Sherbourne, only to move it again a few metres back from the street. Why didn't they place the house at its current location the first time? I don't think they did any shoring /digging where the house is now. Sure, it may have looked weird to have the house set so far back from the street for years (until they were ready to construct the condo), but leaving such a decrepit house right on Sherbourne didn't exactly do wonders to the street either.

Different house - you're thinking of 26 Howard, which was moved to its current location from further east along Howard at the VIA Bloor site.

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