Toronto Communities Profile: Willowdale East (C14), West (C07)
 

Willowdale is an established, affluent community in the city of Toronto, located in the district of North York. It was originally made up from three postal villages, namely Newtonbrook, Willowdale and Lansing.

The boundaries of the current neighbourhood extend as far east as Victoria Park Avenue, west to Bathurst Street, south to the 401 freeway, and north to Steeles Avenue. The neighbourhood abuts Bayview Village to the east and is considered to overlap Newtonbrook to the north. North York Centre is centred at the intersection of Yonge Street and Empress Avenue and is commonly thought to be a part of Willowdale, though its high-rise residential and commercial development in recent years sets it apart from much of the rest of Willowdale. The Willowdale neighbourhood consists of single-family homes, condominium townhouses and high-rise condominium towers. High density development is restricted along Yonge Street. The single-family homes range in age from the original 1910 to 1950s construction (one- and two-storey pre-war houses and modest one-and-a-half-storey postwar houses). After the 1990s, very large replacement two-storey luxury homes were constructed by tearing down the original houses. It is in this neighbourhood that the term “monster homes” was first applied by Torontonians.