

CTVNews.ca Staff





If you’ve ever wanted to live in a farmhouse that comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a built-in nuclear bunker – now’s your chance.

A house in Aurora, Ont. listed for $1.6 million comes with quite the storied past for any history buffs looking to get into the market.

In 1962, the city of Toronto purchased the farmhouse and built an emergency response safehouse on the property, for Toronto politicians to seek shelter in the event of a nuclear attack.

“It was right at the height of the Cold War, and they hastily erected a preparedness centre off to the side of the home,” homeowner Werner Brodbeck said in an interview on CTV News Channel Wednesday.

“Its function would have been to serve as a dispatch centre in case a bomb had been dropped on the City of Toronto.”

Brodbeck, who purchased the house in 1996, said its location as a safe haven was ideal, should Toronto have come under attack.

“Theoretically, we’re far enough north that the Oak Ridges Moraine would have acted as somewhat of a natural buffer,” Brodbeck said.

The potential for maintaining communications would have been “optimal” as well, due to the higher elevation in Aurora.

The bunker, which Brodbeck still refers to as the “preparedness centre” included a call centre with 100 telephone lines and an escape hatch.

“Of course, the radios are all gone,” Brodbeck said.

However, an electrical panel remains, as do two 200-gallon tanks meant to hold an emergency supply of drinking water.

Over the years, renovations have been done in the house, not the bunker.

“So it’s been a labour of love, one room at a time,” he said, later adding the “structural integrity is first class so everything was really cosmetic.”

Brodbeck said the bunker remains in “excellent shape” except for some moisture that any structure its age would have accumulated.

He added that a main “status board” with maps of the city is still there.

“That’s what really makes it unique, otherwise it would just be a cold cellar built off to the side of the home,” he said.

The house is listed as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity that also features a three-car garage, perennial gardens and a circular driveway.