Enchanted Treehouse brings magic to West Hill neighbourhood in Scarborough

What started as a way to cover up a hole in the ground has now grown into something people from all over the GTA come to look at.

The Enchanted Treehouse on Shoreview Drive in the West Hill neighbourhood was built by KC Mackay a little over five years ago.

The tree itself has stood there since 1986, when KC and his mother planted it.

“About five years ago, a snowplow drove into it, damaged the boulevard grass, made it all bumpy and put a big hole in there. So when we came out in the spring, my mother was quite upset. And I said, ‘You know what, I’ll fix it.'”

“My son is the one who decided she’d make something out of it because we didn’t want to take the tree down was a beautiful tree. So he started that summer to cut out the inside a little bit and make room for different things,” said his mother, Patricia.

From there, the Enchanted Treehouse started to grow. KC began by building a little garden inside and then, in 2018, decided to make the tree house itself.

“I grabbed the wood from wherever I could. Everything that’s done here for the tree, the gardens, and everything is recycled materials,” said KC.

He even added a mini yellow brick road to the treehouse this year, with some ruby red slippers and a pot of gold.

“I would say it needs just about acceptance of everybody and everybody to get together and enjoy something beautiful,” said KC.

“I wanted to build a yellow brick road years ago and just timewise and that sort of thing. I could never get around to it. So I made sure to this year probably because of the lockdown.”

KC has faced some adversity this summer. The City of Toronto has ordered him to remove the tree by August 31, 2022, as it infringes on municipal property.

KC tells CityNews they have heard from people from Uxbridge, Ont. and all others to come to check it out.

“Almost everybody who comes by stops, some people are just driving by, and they stop in shock and say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’ [They] say how great they feel it is for the community,” he said.

“We do get a lot of attention. And I will say, you know, it seems to be something that everybody wants to look at.”