330 Palmerston Blvd., Toronto
Asking Price: $6,880,000
Taxes: $21,834 (2026)
Lot Size: 33 by 127 feet
Agents: Paul Maranger and Christian Vermast, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
The backstory
In 2016, Mandy and Kerry Shapansky traded a spectacular Little Italy townhouse in a converted church for a stately detached house just up the street.
The couple had long admired leafy Palmerston Boulevard, which was one of the widest residential streets in the city when the area south of Bloor Street was developed in the early 1900s. The historic stone entrance gates and cast-iron street lamps still add character today, Mr. Shapansky points out.
Their home in the Romanesque Revival-style church building at the corner of Palmerston and College Street had soaring ceilings and dramatic entertaining spaces in the former parish hall.
“We wanted something a little more homey than the magnificent place in the church,” says Mr. Shapansky. “It was wonderful, but it felt a bit museum-like.”
A mutual friend tipped the couple off to the news that the owner of 330 Palmerston Blvd. was about to list the circa 1903 house for sale.
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No. 330 – like many on the street – had been turned into a rooming house years earlier. The couple approached the owner with an offer and purchased the house off-market.
They knew the property would need a back-to-the-bricks overhaul.
While some details, such as the lovely wainscotting on the main floor, were intact, gnarly knob-and-tube wiring remained behind the walls.
“It was very dated,” says Mr. Shapansky, and the mechanical infrastructure was worn.
The couple decided to preserve the late Victorian-era red brick exterior and create a new, contemporary house on the interior.
The couple had hired Toronto-based Studio Pyramid for the interior design of the townhouse and brought the same team back for the new project.
The house today
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Mr. and Ms. Shapansky received regulatory approval to expand the house at the rear, where a parking lot had taken the place of the backyard.
Today, the home provides 3,404 square feet of above-ground living space.
The foyer leads to a living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a bay window overlooking the street.
The dining area, with a custom buffet cabinet and bay window, overlooks the family room below.
The tall ceilings in their three-storey townhouse inspired the couple to create unusual height in the new house.
In the combined kitchen and family room, they lowered the level of the floor by a few feet in order to create ceilings 14 feet high.
Wall-to-wall glass doors fold away to create an indoor-outdoor space open to the back patio.
“Literally the whole opens at the back,” says Mr. Shapansky.
Creating that much elevation meant giving up some height in the very large basement, Mr. Shapansky says, but there was enough remaining space on the lower level to create a wine tasting room, fifth bedroom, bathroom and laundry room.
The leftover space under the kitchen is now used for storage.
Throughout the main floor, the white interior is a backdrop for the couple’s extensive collection of furniture, paintings and sculpture.
“We love art, and I think a modern house should be a canvas for art,” Mr. Shapansky says.
In keeping with the modern aesthetic, the couple replaced the old servants’ staircase with an elevator that services all four levels.
At the front of the home, a sculptural open staircase rises to the second floor, where the primary bedroom has a gas fireplace with a marble surround. The ensuite bathroom has heated stone tile flooring, a free-standing soaker tub and a walk-in shower.
A second bedroom on that floor is currently used as an office.
On the third floor, two additional bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms.
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The second and third floors each have a terrace overlooking the backyard, where the couple turned one of the two garages into an outdoor kitchen pavilion with barbecues and commercial-grade ventilation.
Some of the home’s original elements, such as the front door, pocket doors, wainscotting and fireplace mantle, were reused in the outdoor space as a homage to the original.
“It’s cheeky, but we really like it,” says Mr. Shapansky.
A detached two-car garage with access from the laneway still stands.
“We don’t need a three-car garage in a place where we walk everywhere,” says Mr. Shapansky.
The couple chose Little Italy over more staid areas such as Rosedale and Forest Hill because of the creativity and the edge, they say. They also enjoy the vibrant cultural scene on College Street.
The area is well-known for restaurants and nightlife, Ms. Shapansky says, but residents also enjoy being able to pay a visit to the florist, framer and pharmacist.
Mr. Shapansky says out-of-town guests compare the accommodations to a boutique hotel.
“If friends are coming for an event or a concert, they book a stay at Hotel Shapansky,” he jokes.
The best feature
Mr. and Ms. Shapansky discovered the work of the late artist Feliciano Béjar while spending time at their home in Mexico.
They decided to create a partition wall between the hallway and dining room with glass panels created by the Mexican artisan.
His signature style, known as “magiscopio,” uses panels of glass and other materials to play with light and create visual distortions. Mr. Shapansky found a novel way to transport the glass pieces to Toronto.
“Each time we had a friend visit us in Mexico, we forced them to bring home a magiscopio in their carry-on luggage.”