[Photos via 280Dunn.com] No adjectives were spared when creating the sales site for Abbas Jahangiri's $2 million over-the-top Parkdale mansion at 208 Dunn Ave. (Jahangiri is best-known in Toronto as the controversial former owner of the El Mocambo, the gritty-yet-beloved indie-music mecca on Spadina Avenue). Like a strange hybrid of Buckingham Palace, the Vatican and Barbie's Dream House, this house is mesmerizing in its gaudy weirdness. There's so much gilt that if Louis XIV were to walk in he'd roll his eyes at the excess.
Crucifixes and Catholic icons hang throughout the house (in an apparent ideological contradiction, Jahangiri is a devout Muslim who is also a devotee of Mother Teresa). Weirdly, each room is named after a different title of the Virgin Mary; for example, if you find yourself in need of a drink after touring the house, ask the guide where to find "Our Lady of Zion" (that's the "wine, beer, liquor" room). There's even a chapel, and if you don't feel protected enough by prayer, there's a 70-camera security system. The house was built in 1890 by George Martell Miller, the architect whose other projects around town included humble shacks like the Gladstone Hotel and Massey Hall. When the house was listed earlier this year the price was $2.58 million, but it's since dropped by $600,000. Maybe Jahangiri got some real-estate advice from Our Lady of Good Counsel.
· Headlines: El Mocambo Changes Ownership—Again [Grid]
· El Mocambo Set to Close for the Summer (or Longer) [BlogTO]
· What Parkdale used to Look Like in Toronto [BlogTO]
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