Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
At least until the cops came along
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
PAUL WILSON'S STREETBEAT
There's a place for sale on the Beach Strip that looks like a house you might find in any modern subdivision.
This one, however, has 16 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. "Ideal for very large family," the real estate listing says.
But this was no house for farmlies. This house, with neighbours all around, was built to swing.
Many wonder how such a thing could happen. But the architect was a man known for not playing by the rules.
He was Ken Elliott, former Hamilton Harbour commissioner,
at the centre of a sensational corruption, kickback and bid-rigging scandal in the mid-1970s.
He got a six-year penitentiary sentence for conspiracy, fraud and uttering forged documents. He died five months ago at 76.
The broker who's listed the house says he didn't know it was ever a place where partners were swapped and shared.
But it's a tale of legendary status for those who call the Beach Strip home.
Chad Collins, city councillor for the area, remembers getting the first calls late in 2003. Residents reported a huge party, cars parked all over the place.
The next weekend, Collins got more calls yet. "And these were adults, not kids having a party when the parents were away."
Residents eventually figured it out. They videotaped, took down licence plate numbers.
David Ronald had a front-row seat from his house across the street. His family has been on the Beach Strip for five generations.
He knows what's supposed to be happening and what's not.
He witnessed partiers dashing from Elliott's big new house at 180 Beach Blvd. to his old house one door north, site of a hot tub and indoor pool.
"I saw topless, I saw bottomless," Ronald says. "And I found needles in my driveway."
The party house had a website: www.CharityClub.ca, which said this was "an exclusive and classy private club. Swing and dance until you drop or stop."
Councillor Collins forwarded neighbours' complaints to the licencing department and to police, who sent in a pair of undercover cops.
It's not clear whether anyone was ever convicted of anything, but by some point in 2004 the swingers' club had been neutered and spayed.
Jerry Van is the dean of swing-club proprietors in this area. He has run Burlington's Club 2250, just off the QEW, for a dozen years. No bedrooms there. His is the off -site variety, meaning sexual intercourse doesn't occur on the premises.
As for Elliott's operation, Van says "he was a bit ahead of his time." On- site clubs, which host parties where sex takes place, were declared legal after the Supreme Court redefined indecency laws in 2005.
He says Elliott did not come to him for advice before setting up. "If he did, he might have stayed in business."
The big mistake, Van says, was location. "He was right in the middle of a residential area. You can't do that." He says some of his clients strayed to Elliott's place, but soon came home.
Crystal Meade and boyfriend Robert Nasato bought Elliott's old house, the one with the indoor pool, a couple of years ago. They soon had second thoughts.
Elliott had been running the former swingers' house as a boarding house. Some of his tenants were sketchy.
"I was getting drunks at the door," Meade says. So they listed their house last summer.
They did agonize over one thing.
Elliott had commissioned an elaborate mural for the back wall of the pool. It showed three women in bikinis, with a caption over their heads that read: "Ken, please comeback."
And there's Ken, trim, in the buff, heading off down the beach. His response to the ladies: "I can't I'm out of Viagra."
High art indeed. But the new owners decided they had better paint over it before listing the house. Didn't matter. Their house was on the market for six months with few nibbles.
The swingers' house next door hasn't caught anyone's fancy yet either. Meade, who's in real estate, said it was for sale in recent years at $899,000. Then $699,000. Asking price today, just $449,000.
StreetBeat appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday pwilson@thespec. com 905-526-3241
At least until the cops came along
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
PAUL WILSON'S STREETBEAT
There's a place for sale on the Beach Strip that looks like a house you might find in any modern subdivision.
This one, however, has 16 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. "Ideal for very large family," the real estate listing says.
But this was no house for farmlies. This house, with neighbours all around, was built to swing.
Many wonder how such a thing could happen. But the architect was a man known for not playing by the rules.
He was Ken Elliott, former Hamilton Harbour commissioner,
at the centre of a sensational corruption, kickback and bid-rigging scandal in the mid-1970s.
He got a six-year penitentiary sentence for conspiracy, fraud and uttering forged documents. He died five months ago at 76.
The broker who's listed the house says he didn't know it was ever a place where partners were swapped and shared.
But it's a tale of legendary status for those who call the Beach Strip home.
Chad Collins, city councillor for the area, remembers getting the first calls late in 2003. Residents reported a huge party, cars parked all over the place.
The next weekend, Collins got more calls yet. "And these were adults, not kids having a party when the parents were away."
Residents eventually figured it out. They videotaped, took down licence plate numbers.
David Ronald had a front-row seat from his house across the street. His family has been on the Beach Strip for five generations.
He knows what's supposed to be happening and what's not.
He witnessed partiers dashing from Elliott's big new house at 180 Beach Blvd. to his old house one door north, site of a hot tub and indoor pool.
"I saw topless, I saw bottomless," Ronald says. "And I found needles in my driveway."
The party house had a website: www.CharityClub.ca, which said this was "an exclusive and classy private club. Swing and dance until you drop or stop."
Councillor Collins forwarded neighbours' complaints to the licencing department and to police, who sent in a pair of undercover cops.
It's not clear whether anyone was ever convicted of anything, but by some point in 2004 the swingers' club had been neutered and spayed.
Jerry Van is the dean of swing-club proprietors in this area. He has run Burlington's Club 2250, just off the QEW, for a dozen years. No bedrooms there. His is the off -site variety, meaning sexual intercourse doesn't occur on the premises.
As for Elliott's operation, Van says "he was a bit ahead of his time." On- site clubs, which host parties where sex takes place, were declared legal after the Supreme Court redefined indecency laws in 2005.
He says Elliott did not come to him for advice before setting up. "If he did, he might have stayed in business."
The big mistake, Van says, was location. "He was right in the middle of a residential area. You can't do that." He says some of his clients strayed to Elliott's place, but soon came home.
Crystal Meade and boyfriend Robert Nasato bought Elliott's old house, the one with the indoor pool, a couple of years ago. They soon had second thoughts.
Elliott had been running the former swingers' house as a boarding house. Some of his tenants were sketchy.
"I was getting drunks at the door," Meade says. So they listed their house last summer.
They did agonize over one thing.
Elliott had commissioned an elaborate mural for the back wall of the pool. It showed three women in bikinis, with a caption over their heads that read: "Ken, please comeback."
And there's Ken, trim, in the buff, heading off down the beach. His response to the ladies: "I can't I'm out of Viagra."
High art indeed. But the new owners decided they had better paint over it before listing the house. Didn't matter. Their house was on the market for six months with few nibbles.
The swingers' house next door hasn't caught anyone's fancy yet either. Meade, who's in real estate, said it was for sale in recent years at $899,000. Then $699,000. Asking price today, just $449,000.
StreetBeat appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday pwilson@thespec. com 905-526-3241
