Moore Park has a healthy dose of contemporary rebuilds

• toronto real estate board overview
• located in sector: C09
• average 2012 sale prices
• all homes: $976,857
• detached houses: $1,266,000
• semi-detached houses: $1,173,500
• townhomes: N/A
• apartments: $719,276
• neighbourhood map: see map

The Bridle Path’s houses are bigger and Forest Hill’s and Lawrence Park’s lots are more grand, but Rosedale and northern neighbour Moore Park remain tops in Toronto for class. There’s a long history of the city’s notables making their homes here, with everyone from Tom Thomson (a live/work space in the coveted Studio Building on Severn Street) 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 and 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 always been considered one of the city’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, it diversified in the 1950s when property values fell and dozens of grand old homes were replaced with apartment buildings, about half of which are now condos. On Crescent Road, one of the two streets colonized by Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz’s massive compound, for instance, there are three buildings with relatively affordable units. North toward Moore Park, houses become more modern. Despite plans for development in the area during the housing boom in the 1880s, a delay building the train line waylaid construction until the early 1900s. Bordered by one of the most interesting commercial strips of Yonge, with some of the most stunning houses and charming parks in the city (not to mention Rosedale Ravine), it’s no surprise this neighbourhood is one of the wealthiest, and most attractive, in the city.

• LIBRARY AND SCHOOLS
• LIBRARIES
• Toronto Reference Library
  789 Yonge Street, 395-5577
• Deer Park
  40 St. Clair Avenue East, 393-7657
• SCHOOLS (PUBLIC)
• Rosedale Heights School of the Arts
  711 Bloor Street East, 393-1580
• Rosedale Junior Public School
  22 South Drive, 393-1330
• Deer Park Junior and Senior Public School
  23 Ferndale Avenue, 393-1550
• Whitney Junior Public School
  119 Rosedale Heights, 393-9380
• SCHOOLS (PRIVATE)
• Academy c60
  4 Collier Street, #202, 647-735-3562
• Branksome Hall
  10 Elm Avenue, 920-9741
• The Linden School
  10 Rosehill Avenue, 966-4406
• Gradale Academy Early Learning School
  159 Roxborough Drive, 923-9009
• Horizons Secondary School
  901 Yonge Street, #202, 939-2933
• SCHOOLS (CATHOLIC)
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help
  1 1/2 Garfield Avenue, 393-5239

• neighbourhood hot spots

Olliffe
In a city getting progressively used to organic hamburgers and venison steaks, Olliffe can still shock with its $90-a-pound Wagyu beef. 1097A Yonge St., 416-928-0296.

The Rosedale Diner
An old standby, this 35-year-old diner still charms, but it’s not nearly as popular 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.