Lawrence Park and Leaside are two planned suburbs in north-central Toronto. Wilfrid Dinnick began Lawrence Park as a garden suburb in 1907 and 1908, on a farm that gave Lawrence Avenue its name. Leaside was laid out by the Canadian Northern Railway from about 1912, became a town in 1913, and joined Toronto in 1967 as part of the Borough of East York.
Two suburbs, one idea
Both districts were designed on paper before most of the houses existed. Both borrowed from the garden city movement, which called for curving streets, parks and limited industry. They had different promoters and different histories. Lawrence Park was a private venture by a mortgage-company president. Leaside was a company town for a railway. They sit side by side, on opposite sides of Bayview Avenue, and this article follows each one in turn.
Lawrence Park: farm lots and a name
In the 1790s the land north of Toronto was surveyed into farm lots under Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. A City of Toronto planning report explains that the future Lawrence Park lay on Lots 4 and 5 of the First Concession east of Yonge Street. Lawrence Avenue is named after John Lawrence, a farmer who owned Lot 5. The report says that in 1907 Wilfrid Servington Dinnick, president of the Standard Loan Company, bought Lawrence’s lot and the neighbouring Harris farm. The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s profile names the Dovercourt Land, Building and Savings Company as the buyer. The sources describe the purchase differently, but both agree on the year.
Dinnick hired surveyor and engineer Walter S. Brooke in 1908 to carry out his plan for a “garden suburb.” The City report says he registered the first plan in 1910. Winding roads follow the lay of the land, and large lots front onto gardens. Dinnick engaged the firm Chadwick and Beckett to design the first houses and to review every plan submitted. Eden Smith and Forsey Page also designed houses there. He kept a nursery on site to supply trees and shrubs. The Cultural Landscape Foundation says seven speculative houses were built in 1909 and 1910, with garages instead of stables.
Annexation, the ravine and slow growth
Lawrence Park was once part of North Toronto. The foundation’s profile says the City of Toronto annexed it in 1912. Building slowed after the First World War, and in 1919 the owners sold the ravine parkland to the city to settle tax debts. The area was not fully built until after the Second World War. The foundation says the houses of Tudor Revival, Georgian and English Cottage design were largely complete by the 1960s. The City report places the oldest houses in the western part, near Yonge Street, which developed first.
The neighbourhood is bounded by Yonge Street on the west, Bayview Avenue on the east, Lawrence Avenue on the north and the Blythwood Ravine on the south. The City report calls the Lawrence Park ravine and the Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens integral parts of the garden suburb design. The older Forest Hill lies to the south-west, and Yonge Street forms the western edge.
Heritage protection in Lawrence Park
The Lawrence Park Heritage Committee nominated the western part for study as a heritage conservation district on February 16, 2015. The City’s planning staff recommended on August 9, 2016 that Council authorize the study. The area had 211 properties, five of them on the Heritage Register, and the report illustrated 27 century-old homes. Staff wrote that demolitions and new houses out of keeping with the original design put the character of the area at risk. The report says nothing about the final outcome, so check the City’s heritage pages for the current status.
Leaside: a railway name and a model town
Leaside takes its name from the Lea family. Lost Rivers records that John Lea Sr. arrived from England via Philadelphia in 1819 and bought 200 acres south of Eglinton. His son William later built an octagonal house and called it Leaside. A Canadian Pacific line was built through the Lea farms in 1881, and a plaque says a station stood at Leaside Junction by 1894. The City describes the earlier railway as the Ontario and Quebec Railway, later part of the Canadian Pacific, and says it named the junction after the family farm.
After 1900 the rival Canadian Northern Railway began assembling more than 1,000 acres. A 1912 newspaper called the purchases “the biggest real estate operation ever carried out in Toronto or neighbourhood.” The railway and its land company, the York Land Company, hired the landscape architect Frederick Todd to design a model town. The plan had curved residential streets beside park land and a separate area for industry. Leaside was the third community Todd planned in this way, after Mount Royal in Quebec and Port Mann in British Columbia, and the plan was not carried out exactly as drawn.
Incorporation, delays and growth
Leaside was incorporated as a town in 1913. Sources give different dates: Lost Rivers says April 23, and a plaque says May with 43 residents. Growth was slow because the site was far from the city, the First World War intervened and the Canadian Northern went bankrupt. The City report says only 68 dwellings were recorded in the 1920s. Canada Wire and Cable was the first factory, opening in 1913. During the First World War a training airfield for the Royal Flying Corps operated here, and munitions plants spurred industry along the Canadian Pacific line. See Toronto in the First World War.
The Leaside Viaduct over the Don River opened in 1927. From 1929 to 1939, despite the Depression, the population grew from about 600 to 5,000, the City says. Defence industries in the Second World War pushed it past 10,000 by 1946, according to Lost Rivers, as covered in Toronto in the Second World War. In 1954 the town annexed the former Thorncliffe racetrack lands to the south.
Key buildings and the move into Toronto
The Garden Court Apartments at 1477 Bayview Avenue show the planned-town idea in brick. Forsey Page and Steele designed the complex with landscape architects Dunington-Grubb and Stensson. It was built between 1939 and 1946 in the Art Moderne style, with buildings covering less than a quarter of the site. It won an inaugural Massey Medal for Architecture in 1950, and East York designated it under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1989.
Leaside stayed independent until 1967, when it amalgamated with the Township of East York to form the Borough of East York. The borough was abolished and merged into the new City of Toronto in 1998, according to the City report; Lost Rivers dates the abolition to 1997. Read more in East York history and in the article on Metropolitan Toronto.
Frequently asked questions
Who planned Lawrence Park?
Wilfrid Dinnick began it in 1907, hiring surveyor Walter Brooke in 1908. He registered the first plan in 1910 and engaged Chadwick and Beckett to design the first houses.
Why is it called Lawrence Park?
Lawrence Avenue is named after John Lawrence, a farmer who owned part of the land that Dinnick bought in 1907. The neighbourhood took the name from that farm.
Who planned the town of Leaside?
The Canadian Northern Railway and its York Land Company hired the landscape architect Frederick Todd. The railway announced the residential community in 1912, and the town was incorporated in 1913.
Why is Leaside called Leaside?
It is named for the Lea family, who farmed the land from 1819. Sources link the name to William Lea’s octagonal house and to Leaside Junction on the railway.
When did Leaside become part of Toronto?
It joined the Township of East York in 1967 to form the Borough of East York. The borough joined the amalgamated City of Toronto in 1998.
Sources
- City of Toronto, City Planning, “Authorization to Study Lawrence Park West as a Potential Heritage Conservation District,” staff report, August 9, 2016
- The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “Lawrence Park, Toronto, Canada” (accessed October 2026)
- City of Toronto, Heritage Preservation Services, “Heritage Property Research and Evaluation Report: Garden Court Apartments, 1477 Bayview Avenue,” August 2016
- Lost Rivers project, “The Town of Leaside” (accessed October 2026)
- Read the Plaque, “Leaside: A Railway Town,” text from the Toronto Plaques series (accessed October 2026)
Related reading
- East York history
- North York history
- Forest Hill history
- Metropolitan Toronto, 1953 to 1954
- Toronto in the First World War
- Yonge Street history
Last verified: October 2026
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APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 31). Lawrence Park and Leaside History: Two Planned Suburbs. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/lawrence-park-and-leaside-history
MLA: “Lawrence Park and Leaside History: Two Planned Suburbs.” History of Toronto, 31 Oct 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/lawrence-park-and-leaside-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Lawrence Park and Leaside History: Two Planned Suburbs.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/lawrence-park-and-leaside-history.
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