Casa Loma Homes & Real Estate Toronto

It could be said that Casa Loma neighbourhood’s history began 12,000 years ago, when the crest of Avenue Road Hill marked the shoreline of ancient Lake Iroquois.

Others might argue for the year 1818, when Dr. James Baldwin designed and built the first home atop the forested escarpment — a two-storey wood-frame house that was destroyed by fire in 1835.

1866 was another landmark year, as James Austin began construction of Spadina (Spadeena) House, now a city museum. But it was in 1911 that the neighbourhood gained the iconic structure that bestowed its name: Casa Loma, “the home on the hill” — and what a home it is! Canada’s only castle was built by Sir William Henry Mill Pellatt for $3.5 million, an astonishing cost at that time. Ten years later mounting debts and taxes forced Sir William to sell his fantastical home, the grounds were subdivided, and construction of the community’s stately homes began.

Today, the Casa Loma neighbourhood is a highly desired address, an enclave of winding, hilly streets lined with mature trees and surrounded by wooded ravines and parkland — reaching south from St. Clair Avenue West to the railway tracks above The Annex, and west from Avenue Road to Bathurst Street.

Most Casa Loma homes were built between 1905 and 1940, and include large Tudor, Georgian, Edwardian and English Cottage style homes, as well as recent townhomes on Spadina and luxury condo high rises along Avenue Road. Austin Terrace, Warren Road, Poplar Plains and Russell Hill display some of the most impressive homes in the city — some with long, winding drives to preserve privacy. Immaculate renovations and pristine landscaping are commonplace.

Despite its village-in-a-forest ambience, the neighbourhood is very much part of the city, with quick access to the downtown core — by car via Bathurst, Spadina, Avenue Road, and Yonge Street, or by excellent public transit service connecting to the subway via St. Clair, Avenue Road or Davenport Road.

The community is served by six elementary schools, three public high schools, three private schools, and a public library. De La Salle College is on Avenue Road at Farnham, George Brown College is just south of Davenport, St Michael's College is nearby at Bathurst & St Clair, and the University of Toronto and Ryerson University are readily accessed via the Yonge-University-Spadina subway.

Residents of Casa Loma homes do much of their daily shopping at the stores at Bathurst & St. Clair, with higher-end shopping & dining in Forest Hill Village (on Spadina Road, north of St. Clair), at Davenport & Avenue Road, or in the Bloor-Yorkville shopping district (Davenport Road, east of Avenue Road).

For recreation, extensive Sir Winston Churchill park atop the St. Clair reservoir offers ten tennis courts, a playground, and access to the Beltline recreational trail that follows Nordheimer Ravine to the foot of the Allen Expressway and back again to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

For current information on available listings for Casa Loma homes and real estate, please see the column at the right of this page. Listings are updated daily, so we recommend that you bookmark this page and check back frequently.