Bayview Avenue - History

History

Bayview Avenue follows the first concession line, laid 6,600 ft (2,000 m) east of Yonge Street. Over time, the concession road became known as East York Avenue, a reference to the division it formed between the city of Toronto and the township of East York. In 1931, James Stanley McLean constructed Bay View overlooking the Don Valley on the edge of Moore Park.

On August 17, 1959, Bayview was extended south from Moore Avenue in Leaside to Front Street. The northern section of this extension was routed alongside Pottery Road to Nesbitt Drive. South of this, it wraps around a hill and descends into the Lower Don Valley, travelling parallel to the route of the Don Valley Parkway. This addition is frequently referred to as the Bayview Extension and is one of the few streets in Toronto with a speed limit of 70 km/h (43 mph).

In the late 1990s, York Region conducted several road needs studies near Lake Wilcox, which determined that the disjointed and disconnected Bayview Avenue should be connected from Stouffville Road in the south to Bloomington Road in the north. A lengthy battle ensued between environmentalists, upset over continuing construction in the supposedly protected Oak Ridges Moraine. The discovery of Jefferson Salamanders in the study area resulted in several modifications to the design of the route, including a 70 m (230 ft) structure over a dry ravine, as well as five amphibian tunnels. On November 17, 2002, the new extension was opened, including a widened intersection at Stouffville Road. The former route of Bayview was turned into several short streets which lie directly west of the new roadway.

Bayview Avenue was once proposed to be renamed Kilgour Avenue by the town of Leaside, after Joseph Kilgour, whose widow sold his farm, Sunnybrook, to the city of Toronto on the condition that it never be developed. Today, Sunnybrook Hospital and Sunnybrook Park occupy those lands. While Bayview was never renamed, a recently constructed street south of the hospital carries the name Kilgour Road today.