A private estate garden the city bought and kept exactly as beautiful
James Gardens
Originally the private grounds of businessman Frederick Vibart Massey, James Gardens on the Humber River became a public formal garden after the city acquired it, prized for its landscaped flower beds and stonework.
.jpg)
Advertisement
James Gardens sits along the Humber River in Etobicoke, developed on land that was originally part of a private estate before passing into public ownership and being formally landscaped as an ornamental garden. The site's naturally sloped terrain along the river valley gave designers a dramatic setting for terraced flower beds, stonework and small water features, distinguishing it from the more naturalistic, less formally planted character of most of Toronto's ravine parks.
A quiet formal garden along the river
James Gardens has remained one of the more deliberately manicured, formally landscaped public spaces in the Toronto parks system, particularly known for its spring tulip and seasonal flower displays that draw photographers and visitors from well beyond the immediate neighbourhood. Its combination of formal garden design within a river valley setting makes it a distinct counterpart to the more rugged, naturalized parkland found along most of the city's other ravine corridors.
Advertisement
Sources
Continue reading
Etobicoke
From a rural township incorporated in 1850 to a postwar suburb that grew from under 40,000 people to over…
Jane and Finch
Built rapidly in the 1960s and 70s around a cluster of apartment towers, Jane and Finch became one of…
.jpg)
IMAX's First Permanent Theatre
The technology traces back to Montreal's Expo 67, but the first-ever permanent IMAX theatre opened inside the…
Commerce Court
The Canadian Bank of Commerce's 1931 tower claimed the tallest-building title in the British Empire — a…