Forest Hill North

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Explore Forest Hill North

Now is the time for residents to experience all that tourists have been raving about for years. Discover shops, stops, places and spaces on city main streets. Stay curious, Toronto.

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We hope that you enjoyed exploring this Toronto neighbourhood and found many other points of interest along the way. While StrollTO highlights some of the 'hidden gems' in the neighbourhood, there may be others that could be included in a future edition. Would you like to share a point of interest that you discovered in the neighbourhood? Email us at StrollTO@toronto.ca.

Neighbourhood Stroll

Forest Hill North is a stately neighbourhood with beautiful architecture and lush greenspaces throughout. The Kay Gardner Belt Line Trail cuts through the area and offers the perfect outdoor escape through nature. Forest Hill North also includes two BIAs, Uptown Village and Eglinton Way, lined with many fantastic local businesses.

Main Streets: Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue West

Former William Moore House
171 Old Forest Hill Road
*Note: Private property. Please observe the house from the sidewalk only. In 1815, William Moore purchased two hundred acres for a farm. Moore was a veteran of the War of 1812, and was originally from Ireland. He lived here with his wife, Sarah Harrison and their eight children. He transferred the property to his second son, Robert, who then lived here with his wife and their eight children. Their daughter, Ann, acquired her siblings' interest in the farm, and sold the property in 1890. The style of the heritage-designated house is Ontario Cottage, a variant of the Regency Cottage designs that were popular in England in the early 1800s. The style was favoured by military officers at that time, and most homes built in this style often belonged to majors, colonels and sometimes even captains.

Origin of the Village of Forest Hill
Eglinton Avenue West and Bathurst Street
The origins of the name Forest Hill date back to the 1860s when John Wickson built himself a summer house by the same name. The house was located near the corner of present day Eglinton Avenue West and Old Forest Hill Road. At that time Old Forest Hill Road was a footpath, known locally as Trespass Road. It was later marked on maps as Forest Hill Road North, before changing finally to Old Forest Hill Road in 1927, the same year the village was established. While the village boomed south of Eglinton Avenue, the north end of the village was slow to attract residential expansion. By 1931 only two houses had been built along the line until, finally, the bridge that carried the line over Bathurst Street was torn down in 1934. This sealed the fate of any train service and opened the door to further development in the area. Thanks to its removal, most homes in the area here were built during the 1940s.

Forest Hill War Memorial
Eglinton Avenue West and Vesta Drive
This limestone memorial was erected in 1980 and stands in memory of the Village of Forest Hill residents who died during the Second World War.
Toronto Public Library - Forest Hill Branch
700 Eglinton Avenue West
The Village of Forest Hill established its public library system on April 28, 1954. The village's first library location opened on December 5, 1955 at 329 Chaplin Crescent (now a Works Department Garage and Stores building). Within its first year, Forest Hill Public Library had 284 borrowers, and was open 28 hours a week. The library relocated to this location in 1962, and after the village was annexed by Toronto in 1967, has been renovated multiple times over the years.

Larry Grossman Forest Hill Memorial Arena & Memorial Park - North York
340 Chaplin Crescent
The Village of Forest Hill built the Larry Grossman Forest Hill Memorial Arena in 1967 just before joining Swansea Village as one of the last two independent villages to be annexed by the City of Toronto. Larry Grossman was an MPP from 1975 to 1987, and served as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives from 1985 to 1987. His name was added to the arena in 2004 to thank him for his public service to the community and to the Province of Ontario. The arena is located in Memorial Park, which features multipurpose fields and a baseball diamond.

Roselawn Avenue Cemetery
605 Roselawn Avenue
*Note: Private property. Please observe the property from the sidewalk only. The land for this Jewish cemetery was purchased by Samuel Weber who then donated the property to serve as a cemetery for the community. Up until the early twentieth century, there were no Jewish cemeteries serving communities outside city limits. Weber was motivated to purchase the property after the death of a local Jewish man in a suburban accident in 1906. The man was originally buried in a Christian cemetery but was later buried here thanks to Weber's donation soon after its establishment. One of the notable people buried here is Martin Goodman for whom Toronto's waterfront trail is named after. He was a reporter at the Toronto Star, starting as a cub reporter at 23, and climbed the ranks to eventually become its president at 43. He passed away from cancer in 1981. The cemetery is divided in 20 sections, each serving and maintained by a different synagogue, fraternal organization, or sick-benefit society.

Nicol Macnicol Parkette
1 Elm Ridge Circle
This small park near Eglinton Avenue West and Allen Road features a mix of trees and pathways.
Hydro Home on Elm Ridge Drive
85 Elm Ridge Drive
*Note: Private property. Please observe the house from the sidewalk only. This is one of 79 active hydro homes across the city. Transformer homes like this one began popping up across Toronto in the 1930s, numbering over 200 at their peak. The house was designed in mid-century style to blend in with the rest of the neighbourhood but there are a number of features that give it away. The sign on the front door is obvious, but if you look up at the left side of the house, the vents are also like nothing you see on other homes in the area.

Kay Gardner Beltline Park
The Kay Gardner Beltline Trail runs through this neighbourhood from near the intersection of Allen Road and Elm Ridge Drive to near the intersection of Eglinton Avenue West and Chaplin Crescent
Established in 1892, the Belt Line Railway served as a passenger and freight service. It ran from Union Station, through the Don Valley, Moore Park and Forest Hill. Unfortunately, the service only operated for a little over two years. In 1990, City Councillor Kay Gardner was the driving force behind the City purchasing the portions of the route that had not been redeveloped, and turned it into a 4.5-kilometre park. Kay Gardner was born in Poland in 1927, and married Rob Gardner in London, England before moving to Toronto in 1961. She held municipal office from 1985 to 1997. In 1984 she was the recipient of the Constance E. Hamilton award, an award given to a resident of Toronto whose actions have had a significant impact on securing equitable treatment for women in Toronto. In 1999, Councillor Michael Walker recommended that the park and trail be renamed in honour of Kay Gardner.

Eglinton West Station
1300 Eglinton Avenue West
Eglinton West Station opened in 1978, connecting York to downtown by subway. This station is particularly notable for its unusual architectural features. The ceiling is a large concrete slab with skylights set into the waffle-like design. The large glass windows around the entrance are designed to make the ceiling appear to float. The station has sand-blasted concrete and brick wall finishes instead of the usual subway tile, and has windows at platform level. In 2009, a green roof was installed on the platforms to make the building more environmentally friendly. For those heading to the station's platform level, two two-storey enamel murals called 'Summertime Streetcar' by Gerald Zeldin adorn the walls, depicting 1930s streetcars from various angles. When the Eglinton Light Rail Transit (LRT) opens a new artwork by Douglas Coupland will be installed. This piece, called 'Super Signals', is made from aluminum panels with brightly coloured concentric circles on black and white diagonal lines to resemble the TTC's wayfinding graphics.

Accessibility information: All points of interest are visible from a sidewalk or paved path. Nicol Macnicol Parkette is visible from the sidewalk across the street.

The StrollTO itineraries may follow routes that do not receive winter maintenance. Please review winter safety tips and for more information contact 311.

Soundtracks of the City

From global superstars to local favourites and ones to watch, the Soundtracks of the City playlists all feature artists who have called Toronto home. Whether it’s a lyric about the neighborhood, an artist representing a cultural community, or a tie-in to the StrollTO itinerary itself, all the music reflects connections to an individual ward or the City as a whole.

Music was chosen based on an artist’s Spotify presence and each song’s broad appeal, as well as its associations with the cultures, languages and ethnicities that reflect Toronto’s neighborhoods and diverse music scene. Soundtracks of the City combines 425 songs that feature more than 500 different local artists or acts, showcasing songs in 23 different languages.