Summerhill is a quiet urban community featuring cozy streets, towering trees and beautifully restored century homes. A neighbourhood subway stop connects residents directly to downtown, but the area is so peaceful that you’d never guess that you’re so close to the city. This area offers a tight-knit community feeling, with excellent shopping options, nice public parks and some of the best private schools in the country. An wonderful option for affluent couples and families looking to put down roots near Toronto’s downtown core.

Summerhill is bordered by Avenue Road on the west, Farnham Avenue on the north and Mount Pleasant Avenue on the east. The southern border is jagged, running across Davenport Road straight to Ramsden Park, north along Yonge Street and then northeast along the CP Rail tracks. There is a heavy concentration of the under-40 crowd here, and lots of seniors, too, but very few children and teens. The average after-tax household income is $111,099, making this one of the wealthiest areas in the city.

The best thing about living in Summerhill is that coming home feels like leaving the city behind altogether. Nothing exemplifies this feeling more than the Rosehill Reservoir and the David Balfour Park. These lovely green spaces feature a reflecting pool, a waterfall and the volunteer-run Rosehill Garden. The park will be closed for three years starting in 2017, to make repairs to the reservoir, but the active residents association is working to ensure that for every tree that is cut down, two will be planted in its place.

Summerhill is centrally located. Locals can get to the intersection of Yonge Street and Bloor Street in just 20 minutes on foot; the trip takes eight minutes on the subway and about five minutes by car. The subway will get you to Union Station in about 20 minutes, a quick ride to the city’s financial and entertainment districts. The car will take you just as long, and you’ll need to tack on an extra 10 minutes if you want to take your bike.

Single-family detached Victorian and Edwardian homes dating as far back as the late 1800s, along with some lovely rowhouses and newly built luxury condominiums.

The average house price in Summerhill is $2.1 million, with condominiums ranging from $345,000 to $3.7 million (an average of about $1.2 million).

The best thing about living in Summerhill is that coming home feels like leaving the city behind altogether. Nothing exemplifies this feeling more than the Rosehill Reservoir and the David Balfour Park. These lovely green spaces feature a reflecting pool, a waterfall and the volunteer-run Rosehill Garden. The park will be closed for three years starting in 2017, to make repairs to the reservoir, but the active residents association is working to ensure that for every tree that is cut down, two will be planted in its place.

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Summerhill has a lovely story that begins with a stagecoach driver named Charles Thompson. Back in the 1830s, Thompson would take tourists and travellers all the way from Toronto to Newmarket in his four-horse stagecoach, and then put them on one of his Lake Simcoe steamers for a cruise up through Holland Landing. Along with the tourists, Thompson hauled mail and other goods, and he was so successful he was able to purchase more than 200 acres near Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue. The development of the railway line in 1853 crushed his business, however, and he was forced to sell part of his land. Ever the entrepreneur, he decided to start an amusement park on his remaining property, complete with jerry-rigged rides and a dance hall. He used his stagecoaches to bring visitors to the park, and charged 25 cents for the ride and park admission. He called the park Summer Hill Spring Park and Pleasure Grounds. The park was later shuttered and sold, but the name stuck. The neighbourhood we now know as Summerhill boomed in the 1880s when the North Toronto Railway Station was built there, and many of the area’s gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian homes date from this era. The railway station closed in 1931 (it’s now the LCBO) and the Summerhill neighbourhood declined for a time until the construction of the Summerhill Subway Station in the mid-1950s. Now it is one of Toronto’s most sought-after neighbourhoods.

Like Yorkville to the south and Rosedale to the east, Summerhill is an affluent community where locals enjoy the very best that Toronto has to offer. Independent businesses thrive here, with the so-called “five thieves” right around the corner: Olliffe Meat for prime cuts, Harvest Wagon for the freshest produce and Pisces Gourmet Seafood for the best fish. Find tony linens, plates and silverware at Hopson Grace and buy luxe creams, bags and clothes at Want Apothecary. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for at home, just head to Yorkville to find the finest retailers in the world along Toronto’s famous “mink mile.” In addition to the areas around the reservoir, active residents enjoy several smaller parks nestled along the neighbourhood streets. The largest of these is Ramsden Park, with an outdoor hockey rink, a baseball diamond and two parks for children. Others include Lionel Conacher Park, the Robertson Davies Park and the very tiny Marlborough Place Parkette. The community has a nice small-town feeling to it, owing in part to the very active Summerhill Residents’ Association. The organization is lobbying for Heritage Conservation District status, monitoring the reservoir project and urging the city to fix washed-out trails in neighbourhood ravines, among many other projects that will directly benefit the community.