58 Earl Street, Kingston

Kingston's downtown Sydenham Ward is lined with lovely townhomes. Detached residences, though, especially sizeable and extensively renovated examples, are in short supply, particularly along the quiet, close-to-the-water bottom end of Earl St. If you're in the market for such a thing, it can feel as if you're waiting for a comet that blazes past only once in a generation. Even with that introduction, 58 Earl St is something special. Walkable in minutes to the downtown core and to the water, the hospitals, City Park and the University, the location feels as perfect as a front-row seat. With large principal rooms and high ceilings, excellent natural light and grown-up perennial gardens front and back, it's a winning ticket, a dream made from perfect angles in double-brick and immaculate plaster. The main floor, with its formal living and dining rooms, is pleasingly open thanks to a 2012 Mac Gervan renovation (the kitchen has in-floor heating!), and the home office addition gives onto an elevated deck and then those formal and wild gardens. The primary bedroom suite at the rear of the second floor is as grand as any in the city, with sitting areas and a six-piece ensuite so generous you'll want to plan in advance your route back to bed. Two more bedrooms are spread across the front of this level and both have spacious closets. The third floor - completely finished with hardwood floors and ample knee-wall storage - would make for a splendid fourth bedroom if it wasnt so well-suited to a studio, or teenagers hideaway. The auxiliary heat pump (2020) is connected to three heads over two floors and keeps things both warm and cool, but the main heat source is the gas boiler and the splendid, stylish radiators. The parking pad was resurfaced in 2022, plenty of the windows and doors have been replaced as well, and the basement is dry and insulated. The house needs not a darned thing, that's what I'm getting at, and offers everything you've been looking for.