Fun Friday – The Toronto Doll House
We need some entertainment after seeing tons of dropped ceilings and peeling laminate floors, so Old Houses Under Under $50k is introducing Fun Friday. It is a collection of weird old structures, NOT for sale, simply of interest. Today we visit the Toronto Doll House.
In a quiet neighborhood east of Old Toronto in Canada sits the Leslieville Doll House. The blue-collar neighborhood has streets lined with single and semi-detached homes. Most of the properties have small front yards with a tiny patch of grass and a few flowers and bushes.
The gardener at 37 Bertmount Avenue, however, grows a garden of a different sort. You won’t find hostas, hydrangeas or hollyhocks here. Instead, Shirley Sumaiser grows a garden of Teenage Mutant Teenage Turtle, Toy Story and troll dolls.
Shirley Sumaiser has been growing her collection of stuffed and plastic critters for several decades, using them in lieu of vegetation to fill up her little plot on Bertmount. Her passion for her “dollyhocks” garden began as a small hobby after her husband passed away.
Her plantings soon propagated en masse and now includes not only dolls, but toys, signs, stuffed animals, and doodads that crowd wall to wall across the front yard. Together they create a colorful kaleidoscopic landscape which sometimes changes according to season or holiday.
What do you think of the Doll House garden?
2 Comments
Susie Michaels
Very nice for her passion but I think God I don’t live next-door to her too much clutter she should have it in the backyard not the front takes away the appeal from the neighborhood and her house
Judith Chappell
Must be the biggest attraction in the neighborhood at Halloween for those scared of dolls. lol I find it creative and fun. More power to her for enjoying her property as she sees fit.