Real Estate Guide › Central

Rosedale - Moore Park

Average 2007 sale price:

$3,879,750

Property crime:

average

Crime against people:

very low

Neighbourhood map:

See map

The Bridle Path’s houses are bigger, and Forest Hill and Lawrence Park’s lots are more grand, but Rosedale and its northern neighbour, Moore Park, remain tops in Toronto for their class. The massive houses appear to take up all the available air space within their property lines. There’s a long history of the city’s notables making their homes here at one point or another, with everyone from Tom Thomson (on Severn Creek) to Ken Thomson (8 Castle Frank Road). Laid out on streets that follow the natural topography rather than a grid, Rosedale is a maze to outsiders, a protective labyrinth to residents who value the low traffic produced by all the dead ends and roads that turn back on themselves. Though it has earned a reputation as one of the city’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, it’s been quietly diversifying, with dozens of grand old homes replaced in the 1950s with apartment buildings, about half of which are now condos. On Crescent Road, one of the two streets colonized by Heather Reisman and Jerry Schwartz’s massive compound, for instance, there are three buildings with units accessible to thrifty Indigo branch managers. As you head north toward Moore Park, houses become more modern. Development in the area was first planned in the 1880s, but was waylaid till the early 1900s.

HOUSING STOCK: Though most houses in Rosedale and southern Moore Park—a mix of early-20th-century Tudor, Georgian and Edwardian—are impressive, there’s a great deal of variety. Homes by Old City Hall architect E. J. Lennox (89 Elm Street) and Arts and Crafts master Eden Smith (2 Cluny Drive) rub shoulders with brick-arched designs (44–46 Castle Frank Crescent) that wouldn’t be out of place in any 1970s suburb. There is even a smattering of row houses on Tacoma in north Moore Park.

BARGAIN ZONES: Streets such as Standish and Astley, as well as the upper numbers of Summerhill Gardens all present relatively good deals, as do the row houses on Tacoma and the slightly larger ones on Ottawa.

THE VERDICT: Rosedale has long served as the shining Camelot upon which generations of hopeful Bay Streeters have pinned their hopes. A house in this ’hood signifies the owner’s arrival like no other in the city. Bordered by one of the most interesting commercial strips of Yonge, between Bloor and St. Clair, with some of the most attractive houses and charming parks in the city (not to mention Rosedale Ravine), this is one neighbourhood that’s hard to beat.

NEIGHBOURHOOD HOT SPOTS:
Olliffe In a city getting progressively used to organic hamburger and venison steaks, Olliffe can still shock with its $85-a-pound Wagyu beef, not to mention the fact that no prices are listed, so you won’t know the damage until you get to the cash register. 1097 Yonge St., 416-928-0296.
The Rosedale Diner An old standby, this 30-year-old still has all its charms, but it’s not nearly as popular now as it was in the early ’90s—so you can enjoy a Rosedale Burger and the back patio in relative tranquility. 1164 Yonge St., 416-923-3122.