Maple Leaf

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Explore Maple Leaf

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

The stroll through Maple Leaf takes you through a neighbourhood in the shadow of Highway 401. This residential neighbourhood offers beautiful green spaces, public art, and the history of both provincial and national icons. Great local businesses can be found on Rustic Road.

Main Streets: Rustic Road

North Park
587 Rustic Road
North Park is a 10.8-hectare park near Keele Street and Highway 401 that features two outdoor tennis courts, three bocce courts, a children's playground and walking path through a forested ravine that connects with neighbouring streets.
Conseil scolaire Viamonde
116 Cornelius Parkway
The Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV) is a public-secular French first language school board that operates in Southern Ontario, including Toronto and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The CSV is headquartered here at 116 Cornelius Parkway. Sharing the building is Mathieu-da-Costa elementary, one of the schools in the CSV board. The school is named for Mathieu da Costa, considered to be the first free person of African descent to arrive on the territory that would become Canada. Surviving documents state that in 1608, he was working for the French fur-trader, explorer and governor of Acadia. He joined several exploration parties as a translator, speaking several European and Indigenous languages and dialects. A stamp commemorating da Costa was issued by Canada Post in 2017.

Highway 401
2645 Keele Street
*Note: Use caution when observing the highway and the surrounding roadways. Highway 401 stretches from Windsor through Ontario to the Quebec border. It is currently 828 kilometers long, up to 18 lanes at its widest when it passes through Toronto, and one of the busiest highways in North America. When work began in 1946, the original designers could not have foreseen how this high-speed bypass could have become part of the fabric of the city. When construction started, the roadway passed through fields and farmland on the outskirts of residential neighbourhoods. Instead of planning for the roadway to link cities and towns, the Second World War mindset intended for the highway to bypass these civic centres. In 1951, work on the Toronto Bypass section in Maple Leaf was well under way. The final stretch of the highway was finally laid in 1968, and has continued to be expanded. While it is officially known today as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, the 'four-oh-one' remains an essential transit corridor.

Rainbow Park
250 Rory Road
This park features a playground that includes junior and senior play structures, swings, a small rope climber, a multi-user teeter-totter, individual spring toys and a play panel.
John Perkins Bull House
450 Rustic Road
*Note: Private Property. Please view the house from the sidewalk only. In 1842, John Perkins Bull was given a plot of land on which to build a home. That home was finished by 1844, and sat at one of the highest elevations in the area. Calling the house 'Downs View' as a nod to its vantage point, the nickname eventually came to be used for the whole community. Bull became a Justice of the Peace (earning the moniker Squire Bull) holding court sessions in his home. A courtroom was later built off Downs View, and a jail excavated under the house. The house has been a nursing home since at least 1964, and the much expanded complex continues to operate as such.

Maple Leaf Public School
301 Culford Road
When Maple Leaf Public School opened in 1946, it was not named after the iconic Canadian Flag. In 1946, the maple leaf was associated with other Canadian icons. In celebration of Canada's Confederation in 1867, Alexander Muir wrote 'The Maple Leaf Forever', a song that became a strong contender for the national anthem. The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team first donned their skates and blue jerseys in 1927, after having played as the Toronto Arenas (1917) and the St. Patrick's (1919-1926). Maple Leaf icons were also worn on military uniforms by Canadian soldiers in both the First and Second World Wars, and would still have been fresh in the memories of Toronto residents in the 1940s. The red and white flag known the world over was not introduced to flagpoles until 1965 following a three year design competition, and showcasing the new Canadian Flag at Expo '67.

Queen's Greenbelt
600 Queen's Drive
This block-spanning park stretches from Culford Road to Donofree Road. The parkland includes walking and biking trails as you travel through this green space in the neighbourhood.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic School
53 Gracefield Avenue
The outdoor playground of St. Francis Xavier School may look like a regular hardscape, but it's anything but. Winner of the 2013 Concrete Award, the refurbishment of the outside space around the school made use of a new specialty material. This permeable surface allows water to run through the concrete rather than pooling on top. Using a mix of pre-cast concrete walls and permeable pavers, they were able to construct an outdoor classroom space. In addition to this, crushed recycled concrete was used as the base for the parking areas. Conventional concrete methods were used to create accessibility ramps and stairs in outdoor locations around the school. Another goal of this project was to provide barrier-free accessibility between various parts of the schoolyard.

Jenn Kitagawa Artbox
Northwest Corner of Lawrence Avenue West and Keele Street
At the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Keele Street, artist Jenn Kitagawa has created a feast for the eye. Using a derivative approach and a bright colour palette, the painting will be a gateway to the delicious and fun. Giant tasty shapes will be visual eye candy. Eyeballs will be delighted, stomachs will crave candy, smiles will appear.

Essencia Art Collective 'The Awakening' Mural
1234 Lawrence Avenue West
In 2015, the Essencia Art Collective, in partnership with the Centre for Spanish Speaking People, completed this 400-foot mural titled 'The Awakening' along the underpass on Lawrence Avenue West. This mural celebrates and promotes a critical understanding of the importance of our planet as a vital source for all life forms. It raises awareness of pressing global environmental issues and highlights macro and micro ways of positive empowerment.

Accessibility information: All points of interest are visible from the street. Some sidewalks or paths in parks may not be fully paved or level. Use caution when observing the Highway 401 and Essencia Art Collective Mural on the Lawrence Avenue West underpass.

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.