Armour Heights Homes & Real Estate Toronto

One of Toronto's coveted neighbourhoods, Armour Heights reaches north from Lawrence Avenue West to Brooke Avenue above Highway 401, and west from Yonge Street to Avenue Road.

When John Armour settled here in the 1830's, Yonge Street was still a narrow, muddy, partially graveled connection to Toronto in the south. Armour cleared land for his farm, and built his homestead on the present-day site of the Armour Heights Community Centre.

In 1911, the Armour family sold their land to Colonel F.B. Robins, a man with a dream. Robins planned to create a high-class address, complete with a polo field and bridle path. The polo field was never built, but the bridle path became today's Yonge Boulevard.

Col. Robins was a patriot. When World War I broke out, he shelved his subdivision plans and donated land as a training school for American and Canadian pilots. An airfield was built close to today’s intersection of Avenue Road and 401, and American heroine Amelia Earhardt was a regular visitor when she was stationed in Toronto with the Canadian Red Cross.

When the war ended, Canadian fighter aces, "Billy" Bishop and William Barker, took over the airfield, but their business venture was short-lived and one of Canada’s busiest airfields was abandoned in 1921.

Development of the neighbourhood was stalled until 1929, when Col. Robins and partner W. J. Mulock sold their interest to R. J. Lillico & Associates in a transaction described in local papers as one of Toronto’s largest real estate deals ever. The new owners intended to name their subdivision to Beverley Hills, but history won out and the Armour Heights name remains.

Col. Robins may not have realized his dream, but it was his home that inspired the residential tone for Armour Heights. In 1914, he built Strathrobyn, the magnificent Tudor stone mansion set back from the street at the north-east corner of Yonge Boulevard and Wilson Avenue—now owned and operated as a staff college by the Canadian Armed Forces.

Armour Heights homes were built between the 1920s and ‘70s, with houses ranging in size from modest two-storey three-bedroom homes to the impressive Tudor Manor houses situated on spectacular ravine lots along Sandringham Drive.

At the north end of Armour Heights, south of Earl Bales Park, the homes represent excellent examples of the Modernist architecture in vogue during the 1960's and 1970's.

Location and amenities have much to do with the appeal of Armour Heights homes. With Highway 401, Yonge Street and the Toronto subway all conveniently nearby, getting into, across or out of the city is easy. The neighbourhood has a strong community association, access to good schools, excellent shopping, dining and entertainment at hand on Yonge Street and Avenue road, and plenty of recreational green space — including the Don Valley Golf Club and the splendid Earl Bales Park, off Bathurst Street, home to the North York Ski Centre, picnic areas, and an outdoor amphitheatre.

Armour Heights homes offer everything from condos to mansions, with prices ranging from $500,000 to over $1,000,000. For current information on available listings for Armour Heights 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.