Named for Allan Gardens and Moss Park, the public parks that form its northern and southern boundaries, the Garden District is one of Toronto’s oldest residential neighbourhoods.

About 1,000 years ago, the Wendat lived on this land. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) arrived in the middle to late 1600s, and the Anishinaabe, including the Mississaugas, lived here by approximately 1700. Before and after the 1805 signing of Treaty 13 (Toronto Purchase), colonists began to settle in the Toronto area. In 2012, archaeologists found stone (lithic) flakes within Allan Gardens from the shaping of tools and weapons by Indigenous peoples.

The original “park lots” that make up today’s Garden District were owned by the Allan and Jarvis families. By 1880, most of the colonial families’ properties had been subdivided. Until the late 19th century, many of Toronto’s richest residents lived in mansions here. After the First World War and the Great Depression, many of these homes were divided into apartments or were used as rooming or boarding houses.

Allan Gardens is one of Toronto’s oldest public parks. Archaeological finds include coins, toys, and window glass (possibly from earlier greenhouses), confirming it as having been a place of leisure for centuries.

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