That’s when Mitz learned the laneway he and his father had collectively been parking in since 1941 was not their laneway at all, but a forgotten sliver of land owned by Henry John Boulton, a prominent lawyer, politician and well-established member of the Upper Canadian elite who died 150 years ago.
Known as “orphaned” land in the industry, these properties tend not to attract much notice from anyone — assuming they have been noticed at all — until someone comes along to build something upon them, such as a condominium.Article content “If somebody had shown up and said, ‘I can prove title,’ I would have had to have said to the client — had that happened — ‘Well, you know, you have found the owner now, and now you have to buy it, you have got to negotiate a deal,'” Sanj Sood, the lawyer for Gupta’s group said.
In dealing with Lot 21, Boulton subdivided the property into 185, 183 and 181 King Street East. He sold 185 King in 1833, but kept the narrow strip of laneway behind it, just wide enough for a horse and buggy to squeeze through. He later sold the other two properties, but the strip remained. Grafi’s mother was an enthusiastic amateur historian and enjoyed stories of the past, but there was never any talk about an orphaned laneway until a genealogist called to fill Grafi in.
oconnorwrites Only in toronto will you find sob stories written about developers 🫣
oconnorwrites I love this story,but few know about the little buying sprees by city councilors who got ' friends' to buy many of these slivers near liberty village, now sitting there worth millions where they paid hundreds! topoli