Inside Canada’s largest mansion – abandoned for over 15 years and left to rot

Once envisioned as a luxury lakeside mansion, Canada’s largest home now sits abandoned, with broken windows and unfinished floors serving as eerie reminders of what could have been.

Peter Grant’s 65,000-square-foot mansion on the shores of Lake Temiskaming in Ontario has been left to rot for more than 15 years.

The former estate was the brainchild of Peter Grant, former president of Grant Forest Products, who dreamed of creating an opulent retreat.

Plans included high-end features like an underground boathouse, an art gallery and even a private golf course.

But these grandiose plans were destroyed by the financial crisis of 2008. Construction was greatly delayed and the property was never completed.

Grant’s company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, leaving the colossal structure an empty shell, with half-finished walls and floors that were never used.

Despite its derelict state, the mansion has gained notoriety as Canada’s largest mansion. But aside from its sheer size, what’s inside the mansion now is far from a dream. Instead, scattered construction debris and graffiti tell the story of a project left in ruins.

The massive home was listed for $25 million, though it’s far from livable. A Toronto-based company eventually bought the property, but in 2023, it was reported that little had changed beyond some security improvements.

In an effort to stop curious onlookers from exploring the ruined mansion, security cameras and fences were installed.

But the intrigue surrounding the ruined house remains strong.

“People come to the city and want to know where it is and [ask if they can] go take a look,” Temiskaming Shores Mayor Jeff Laferriere told the CBC in 2023.

Estimates to complete the mansion are around $1 million, but whether it will ever be finished or just left to rot is still unclear. For now, it remains a formidable monument to misguided ambition.

“It’s hard to fathom how much is left here,” said Jake Williams, founder of Toronto-based Bright Sun Films, in a video tour of the residence.

“Since this building got this far in construction, a lot of the exterior and interior fixtures were nearing completion,” Williams said. Even the utilities were in working condition until the moment of abandonment.

Although the property boasts distinctive features such as a massive waterfall below the mansion, its deterioration has turned it into a nuisance for the local community, with graffiti increasingly covering the exterior and interior walls.