‘End of an era’: New owners of iconic Toronto dollhouse give dolls, decorative pieces away | CBC News

Bradley Sutherland could not hide his excitement as dozens of people gathered in front of his newly acquired home on Sunday to collect dolls, teddy bears and other decorative pieces that line the property.

Last month Sutherland and his partner bought what’s widely known as the dollhouse — near Queen Street and Jones Avenue — from Shirley Sumaisar.

Sumaisar lived at the home for more than five decades, and over the years placed dozens of dolls and other trinkets on the lawn and front porch.

Once people learned that the house had been sold, Sutherland said there “was a lot of interest” from neighbours and others about the dolls and other decorative pieces. He said he was more than happy to share them. 

“We’re really excited to give back to the community today,” Sutherland said.

“This house has been here for a long time. I understand some of the dolls have been up for 30 years, so when we bought the house, we had a lot of people asking, ‘what are you going to do with the dolls, are you going to throw them out, are you going to give them away?’… so we decided to do a giveaway.”

The new homeowners collaborated with MLSE’s Change the Game campaign to organize the giveaway as a charitable event. Guests were asked to make a cash or online donation to the campaign.

It was a bitter-sweet moment for Liam Romalis, who lives just a few homes down the street.

“I’m very disappointed because I’ve had my eye on three different pieces, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Garfield, and a Cookie Monster, and while we’ve been politely in line, they’ve all disappeared,” he said.

“We’ve been waiting for this since they announced they were going to do a giveaway.

“I think for a lot of us on the street, we love the dollhouse. It’s what has made [our community] unique. It brings people to the street and it’s lovely, they’re a fixture. So, it really feels like the end of an era,” he added.

Romalis is looking forward to seeing the “many dolls start to appear on many different lawns,” across the community.

‘The creepiest doll’

Sabrina Oliver said her father would usually take her to see the house when she was a child. She recalls that it always creeps her out, but now as an adult, she wanted to get something for her own home.

“We were mostly looking for something that was the creepiest doll that we could find, that’s what we were going for,” she said, adding that she was happy with what she found.

“This one was trapped completely in the weeds. It’s a good one, I feel. It looks like it’s been there for a really long time,” Oliver said.

Beau Hatcher “didn’t love the aesthetic” of the dollhouse but he had “a lot of respect for the work that went into it.

“I didn’t love it but I liked that it made a lot of kids happy,” he said.

Additionally, he said “James and Shirley were good neighbours, so it’s kind of sad to see them leave.”

Nonetheless, Hatcher said he was still hoping to get a doll, which he plans to place on a stick on his lawn “as a homage to the dollhouse.”

Sutherland said the semi-detached, three-bedroom home was a good fit, and he and his partner will do some renovation.

“We wanted to live in the area, we have a lot of friends around here. We’re in a condo downtown right now, and this is the area we wanted,” he said.

“My partner builds homes as well, so we wanted a project or something that we could make our own. 

“We were a bit overwhelmed, obviously, at first, given the amount of items on the house all over … but we saw the potential,” Sutherland added.