Don Mills is a mixed-use neighborhood in Toronto’s North York region, which is located in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was planned as a self-sufficient new town and was built outside of Toronto’s city limits at the time.
The city of North York, which included the Don Mills neighborhood, was absorbed into the city of Toronto in 1998. Residential, commercial, and industrial sub-districts make up the majority of the neighborhood, which was designed and developed by private enterprise. In many aspects, it served as a model for post-war suburban development in Toronto as well as for current residential neighborhoods in the United States.
The Europeans arrived in the Don Mills area for the first time in 1817. Although the location was quite a way from the town of York, the Don River served as a convenient mode of transportation as well as a source of electricity for a number of mills along its length.
At a time when Toronto was growing at an exponential rate, the Don Mills area remained largely rural until after the second world war. It was shut off from the rest of the city by ravines on the south, east, and west sides of the river. York Mills Road and Don Mills Road were the only roadways that connected the neighborhood.
Between 1952 and 1965, the town of Don Mills was planned as a model community. The usage of land, the design of buildings, and the materials used in construction were all strictly restricted. Many parts of its architecture have been replicated in suburban projects across Canada, including the city of Toronto. People would be given precedence above industry and automobiles by its planners.
During the late nineteenth century, businessman E.P. Taylor became intrigued by the combination of desolation and close proximity to the city. His original vision for the location included the construction of a brewery as well as a small town for the workers to live in.
Taylor had only a few years of previous experience in the property development sector, but he had completed a project in York Mills called the Wrentham Estates. When Taylor realized how much money could be earned from such endeavors, he abandoned his brewery plans and instead chose to simply develop a new town on the 2,000 acres he had purchased.
Taylor began planning the Yorktown community in 1951, and the project was officially revealed on March 11, 1953. Construction of the town, which would be centered at the intersection of Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East, was to begin immediately. The Don Mills Development Company, which was controlled by Taylor, was in charge of the project.
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