Forest Hill:
A Village By Design

At The Four Corners

At the four corners of Spadina Road and Lonsdale Avenue, Forest Hill has the scale of a short shopping street. You can walk the block before deciding where to stop. The shops give the address a practical centre, somewhere to return to between work, school and home.

A Village By Design

The name dates to John Wickson's summer home at Eglinton Avenue and Old Forest Hill Road in 1860. Before incorporation, the district was called Spadina Heights, with borders set by York Township school district 30, created in 1910. Residents secured village status in 1923, seeking lower taxes and control over schools and construction. Every house had to have its front elevation designed by an architect.

There were no restrictions on who could buy, and by 1961 Jewish families made up nearly half the village's population, the highest proportion in any Canadian municipality at the time. Forest Hill resisted amalgamation until 1967. A 1930s municipal report warned that becoming a town would cost the word village its distinction.

Schools And The Ravine

For households with school ties, Lonsdale Road is already a familiar address: Upper Canada College, founded 1829, and The Bishop Strachan School, founded 1867, are both here. Forest Hill Collegiate Institute stands on Eglinton Avenue West, in a building commissioned by the village's own board of education.

From the village shops, the walk to Suydam Park at Strathearn Boulevard takes about four minutes, covering 294 metres to the longstanding access point for Cedarvale Ravine. You can make the shops and ravine part of the same outing.

Routes And Realities

St. Clair West station is an eleven minute walk from the four corners, a distance of 854 metres. The 512 St. Clair streetcar runs along the neighbourhood's south edge, while Line 5 Eglinton opened in February 2026 with a Forest Hill station at Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue.

In September 2026, the Forest Hill South detached benchmark was $1,801,300, down 4.0% year over year, against a City of Toronto detached benchmark of $1,417,600, down 4.5%, per the September 2026 Midtown Market Update. That premium makes the house itself worth close attention. Forest Hill South has older homes set back on deep lots, often held for decades. Forest Hill North adds mid-century bungalows and ranch styles, with condos along Eglinton.

The Name Remains

The City adopted village design guidelines in 2015 and listed fifteen village properties on the Heritage Register in 2020. Forest Hill has kept its name and a centre you can cross on foot. On the way home, you pass the shop windows again. Explore the Forest Hill South and Forest Hill North guides.

References

City of Toronto, Inclusion on the City's Heritage Register: Forest Hill Village Properties, December 2020.

Forest Hill Village BIA, About the BIA.

Upper Canada College, History and Archives.

The Bishop Strachan School, Our Heritage.

Toronto District School Board, Forest Hill Collegiate Institute.

TTC, Route 512 St Clair and Line 5 Eglinton.

Walking distances measured with OpenStreetMap foot routing from Spadina Road at Lonsdale Road.

revgroup.ca, Midtown Market Update: September 2026 and the Forest Hill South and Forest Hill North neighbourhood guides.