THE HOME OF ARCHITECT AND KARELIA OWNER JANIS KRAVIS IS FOR SALE
If you were in Toronto in the 60s and 70s, you probably remember the name ‘Karelia’.
It was a store started by architect, Janis Kravis…
He moved to Toronto via Sweden after fleeing Latvia near the end of WWII and followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an architect. He learned about Finnish architecture at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture at U of T.
In 1960, Kravis started Karelia selling Scandinavian goods out of a beauty salon. When Viljo Revell, the architect behind the Toronto City Hall, according to the article written on the Daniels website last summer after Kravis’ passing last July…
"I got to know Viljo Revell and his team of architects when they were working on the Toronto City Hall," Kravis would later write. "They literally opened up their kitchen cabinets and showed me dishes by Kaj Franck for Arabia, glassware from Iittala, as well as fabric and cushions from Marimekko. They told me about Armi Ratia and Timo Sarpaneva, Tapio Wirkkala, Artek, Antti and Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi, Metsovaara, Fiskars, Haimi, Muurame and many others. I had just sold my secondhand car and was planning my first trip to Finland."
And so began the introduction of Finnish style to Toronto…
Not only did he bring style, he brought fun to Toronto with his many parties in his stores…
According to the blog at karelia.ca where Kravis wrote about design and stories of his life, this was the home he shared with his wire Helga....
My guess is that was the home where Helga and Janis raised their children, Leif, Nils, and Guntar and at some point, perhaps after the kids moved out, they moved here in 2008 when it looked like this…
They raised the ceiling to resemble their previous house and it was painted in colours reminiscent of the Karelia products, not to mentioned filled with products from the store. Plus, there is that touching photo above the fireplace of Helga who predeceased Janis.
It was a 3+1 bedroom house according to the 2008 listing but it is now a 2+1 bedroom house on a 60 x 113 foot lot at 49 Tottenham Road in Don Mills.
Based on the price of this house of $1,688,800…
I assume it does not come with the furniture.
P.S. On a side note…
Shout out to this man, Latvian fisherman Pēteris Jansons, who saved Kravis and 2000 more fellow countrymen in 30 crossings from Latvia to Sweden…
