From Methodist Church to Stunning Loft Conversion

The Abbey Lofts are located in a converted 1911 neo-Gothic church situated between Roncesvalles Avenue and High Park in a high-demand community with great shopping, restaurants and nightlife, and lots of room for recreation in Toronto’s most beautiful downtown park. Public transportation, a five-minute walk to the Bloor subway line, is excellent, and there are three streetcars nearby, running along College, Dundas, and King.

The Abbey Lofts is a 24 unit project created in a neo-Gothic church that was built in the Medieval Revival style in 1911. The light-grey solid limestone walls and stone cladding of architect William George Burns’ church, built for a Methodist congregation, are unchanged in nearly a century. The 90-foot church tower, built with the same limestone, quarried in St. Mary Ontario, is a square campanile with pseudo ‘battlements’ on top.

The church itself has changed names and congregations several times. In 1925, the Methodists merged with other Protestant denominations, and set up the Howard Park United Church. Then in 1970, the United Church congregation left the building and it was acquired by a group of Italian evangelicals. In 2003, they in turn moved from their Howard Street Pentecostal Church to a new building in Vaughan. The church on Sunnyside Avenue, in the High Park-Bloor area, was acquired by the current developers.

Inside the former church, one Abbey Lofts unit has retained the three original solid wood church doors, fronting onto a 30-foot terrace. The elegant, arched doors have glass insets. Almost every unit has original exposed walls, some with 13-foot ceilings in sunken living rooms.

The medieval Revival style is also referred to as Tudor, as in English architecture from the early 16th century. Some aspects of the Tudor style were borrowed from late Medieval castles or palaces, which often had overlapping gables, parapets, and patterned brick or stonework. Medieval churches were often fortified places of sanctuary and the Sunnyside church has some of the features of a fortification, but with a huge arched stained glass window to let light into the vaulted structure.

The Abbey Lofts have open-concept living spaces, with galley-style kitchens and island eating areas. Some have stairs down to sunken living rooms, which can lead to a den or extra bedroom reached through double doors.

The architects have taken care to retain as much of the original 1911 Edwardian interior as possible. There are original, exposed limestone walls, original church doors (with newer windows) and stained glass archways.

The ceilings are very high and help to create a large open atrium-style space. The walkout to a 30 foot terrace itself is large enough for an ‘outside’ lifestyle. The master bedroom has good closet space and a large en suite bathroom with shower stall.

The Roncesvalles/High Park area is desirable for young professionals and executives alike, with Sunnyside Park, the Boulevard Club, the Toronto Sailing Club, the Argonaut Rowing Club, Ontario Place and the Martin Goodman trail about 15-20 minutes by foot to the south on the shoreline of Lake Ontario.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information  -  416-388-1960

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318 sunnyside toronto real estate

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