Developer still hasn’t announced its plans for 733 Mt. Pleasant Road
A CERTAIN DARK CHARM: The empty building that used to house Murray Newbigging Funeral Home holds a certain charm to fans of horror.
There is an abandoned funeral home down the street from me.
Most days, when I venture down Mt. Pleasant Road, south of Eglinton, I’ll pass the former Murray E. Newbigging Funeral Home, and it stirs my creative juices.
As you know by now, I’m a fan of horror films and literature, particularly of the supernatural ilk.
So, 733 Mt. Pleasant, with its stony facade, imposing height and Victorian flare, is boarded up and still has light on upstairs. Unless your inner child is dead, your spider-sense should be tingling.
Now I don’t mean to imply that the former Newbigging business is, uh, haunted. But having a light on does manifest some lurid plotlines, and preternatural questions.
Why is the light on? Are there squatters there? Is the building situated on ley lines?
Don’t misinterpret my fascination with the uncanny. I’ve written about Mount Pleasant Cemetery and the allegations that the land is haunted, but I’ve never been a believer that the dead inhabit places they never ventured to in life.
That’s goes for funeral homes too. So, debunk be the order of business on that noise.
What is rooted in the corporeal world, though, is the Town Crier reported on the merging of the two midtown heavyweights in the funerary world two years ago. Newbigging, the then 64-year-old business, was purchased by Humphrey Funeral Home – A.W. Miles Chapel Limited and the two operations amalgamated on Aug. 15, 2014.
Still, that was two years and the old Newbigging home was not included in that deal. Bruce Humphrey, the president of his family’s 137-year-old operation confirmed they don’t own it, but said there are offices that people are renting for now.
The selling price for 733 Mt. Pleasant Road was $5.5 million.
“The long-term use of the building is going to be for development, but I’m not sure when, how, why, who, and what,” he said.
Paul Newbigging never returned my calls at print time, so I’m gathering he’s as silent as the grave on the topic, or who exactly bought the land. So, that mystery is still left to be uncovered.
All I’m thankful for is the pond dried up. That would have brewed a brood of mosquitoes second to none.
And that’s perfect for a Joe Dante type film like Piranha, or, if you’re starving for Canadian content, Gary Jones’ B-film fare, Mosquito.