The History of Riverdale's Streets

All information below is reprinted with permission from former Riverdale Historical Society President Gerald Whyte's book "The Streets of Riverdale."

Albemarle Avenue

Albemarle Avenue was late part Sparkhall, late part Bain, and late Highland (1895 Directory). The street names were moved around a bit while the area was settled. This is a one block long residential street running west off Logan to Hampton. It was part of the farm of Cubit Sparkhall. Farming gave way to the urban settlement that moved north from Queen Street after 1884.

The oldest house on Albemarle Avenue is number 34 and dates from 1893.

Allen Avenue
In 1884, Allen replaced Fee’s Road, 1875. Allen was for Thomas Allen, a City Tax Collector for St.Lawrence Ward and Alderman for St. David’s Ward intermittently between 1877-18790 and for Ward 1 from 1894 to 1897. Fee’s Road was for John Fee who purchased the land, part of the original John Cox land grant. It is a one block residential street running east off Broadview to Boulton.

In 1884 there were twelve houses on the street, homes of a baker, a peddler, four laborers, a teamster, a painter, a machinist and a widow. At this time women were described as being either married or as widow or spinster. In 1885, as a reward for joining the city, sewer and water services were installed and a cedar block roadway and wooden curbing put in.

Badgerow Avenue
Badgerow Avenue was named for George Washington Badgerow who was born at Markham, May 28, 1841. He studied at Markham High School and, after working in the office of Chief Justice Harrison, was called to the Bar in 1871. He was head of the law firm of Messrs. G. W. Badgerow & Co. He was elected to the Ontario Legislature for the riding of East York as a Liberal in 1879.

Bain Avenue
An important feature of Bain Avenue is Riverdale Courts, later the Bain Cooperative, H.T.P.R. It was constructed in 1913 by Eden Smith, 1858-1949, Toronto’s leading Arts and Crafts style architect. Riverdale Courts and Spruce Court in Cabbagetown were the first example of a public private partnership to provide low income public housing in Canada. They were built by the Toronto Housing Company to meet an affordable rental housing shortage prior to World War I. The original two hundred and four “flats” are in the English Cottage style favoured by the architect.

Basin Street
Basin Street is from a geographic term for a bay. It is an industrial street in the harbor district, formerly Riverdale’s “broken front”, the wetlands, swamp, that once graced the mouth of the Don River.

Bisley Street
Bisley Street is probably for the village of Bisley in Surrey, England, since 1890 the location of the United Kingdom National Rifle Association Championships (Spec). The National Shooting Centre at Bisley is renowned throughout the shooting world. Many Canadians have competed at Bisley over the years.

Blackburn Street
Blackburn was, perhaps, named for the family that established the first taxi service in Toronto, although there is no evidence for this. A prominent Blackburn was Josiah Blackburn, 1823-1890. He was a newspaper publisher who was involved in the establishment of the Toronto Mail in 1872 with Sir John A. Macdonald.

Booth Avenue
Booth is an early residential street running north from the bay, now the industrial area built in the 1920s on the Don River swamplands, to the tracks of the railway through Riverdale. Booth occupies part of the Brown land grant, which was subdivided early by the government. The Blongs were a notable family in the area who survived a number of name moves. They must have exercised some influence to accomplish this. Most street names once lost do not return. In 1886 Thompson, Flannigan and Blong had a butcher business in the St. Lawrence Market. here were a lot of people in Riverdale involved in the meat trade.

Boston Avenue
Boston Avenue, 1886, is a residential street running west of, and parallel to, Pape Avenue below Gerrard to Queen. In 1886 there was a Charles Boston living on the west side of Broadview Avenue north of Paul, later Kintyre, Street. The street may have been named for the U.S. city of Boston. A nearby street was named Brooklyn. 

Bouchette Street
Bouchette Street was named for Col. Joseph Bouchette, 1774-1841, Surveyor General of Lower Canada, 1804-1841 (J). He was an author of various works including “British Dominions in North America”. He was the nephew of Major S. Holland, Surveyor General of Lower Canada, d. 1801, whom he succeeded (Robertson, 2nd). He was also the son of Jean Baptiste Bouchette, commander of British naval forces on Lake Ontario.

Boulton (Bolton) Avenue
The first fire hall in Riverdale was Fire Hall No. 12, 1884, on Boulton at Allen Avenue. It was a grand structure with an ornate tower for drying the hoses. In 1874 Boulton Avenue Public School, at Allen, was the location of the first service of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. There was a number of notable Victorian terrace houses on Boulton north of Dundas. In 1895, 234 Boulton was the grocery store of Hugh Ogilvie and 235 was a confectionary. 

Bowden Street
Bowden Street, 1886, was built on, was named for John Wilson Bowden, a builder, who subdivided his land north of Hogarth to the Danforth and from Broadview to Logan in 1871. Bowden is a short residential street running north from Hogarth to the Danforth, parallel to Hampton. It has a number of notable houses.

Broadview Avenue
It is a location name taken from the broad view across the valley of the Don (O). Established following the founding of York, it was a rough trail from Kingston Road/ Queen Street north to the saw mills and mills for grinding grain being built on the Don. In 1798 Timothy Skinner, a mill owner, was required by the government to build the road through the woods to access the mills. In Riverdale it roughly follows the dividing line between the Scadding and Cox land grants.

Broadview Avenue and Queen Street were the first two streets of Riverdale and remain its two most important and historical streets. At 131 Broadview is the Royal Canadian Bicycle Club, 1904, John Francis Brown, 1866-1842. The Royal Canadian Bicycle Club, established 1891, has its origins in the Royal Canadian Athletic Club, an association of some hundred young men with an interest in athletics. When the new club was formed only five of its members had bicycles and these were the hard tire variety. The first officers of the small club were: S. H. Gibbons, Captain, E. McTear, First Lieutenant and Fred Creed, Second Lieutenant. The first home of the club was in the Smith Block 639-655 Queen Street.

The Benjamin Langley House at 441 Broadview is a listed 1885 farmhouse style in beautiful red brick with yellow brick detailing and notable woodwork. It is similar in style to the houses at 483 Broadview and 58 Hogarth. Benjamin Langley is shown to have held a considerable block of land in the area in 1878.

In 1904 John A. Gallagher was established as a druggist at 485 King Street East and was still living with his parents on Saulter Street. However, in 1908, while maintaining his druggist business on King Street, he moved to his new home at 445 Broadview Avenue where he set up practice as a physician. The addition of the new occupation seemed to have been easy. In 1919 Dr. Gallagher moved his place of residence and practice to 539 Sherbourne Street and his druggist practice to 1061 Gerrard Street East. His sister Gertrude established her home and practice as a druggist at 756 Broadview and remained there for many years. In 1919 Dr. Roy A. Belfrey established his residence and practice at 445 Broadview.

The John Cox House at 469 Broadview, circa 1796, the oldest continuously inhabited house in Toronto, was originally a log cabin occupying the south half of the present structure and facing south. It was built for John Cox, U.E.L., to fulfill the requirements of his grant of land, Lot 14, Concession One, some two hundred acres with a broken front on the lake. This is one of the places where the early history of Riverdale begins.

648 - George Arlow House, 1919, William Halls and Son, contractors, listed. George J. Arlow, b. 1880, son of Samuel Arlow and Susan Gall, married, 1908, Isabella Dey, 23, daughter of William Dey and Margaret Gardiner. Arlow was at the time a stationery clerk at the Traders Bank, one of Ontario’s largest banks. It merged with the Royal Bank in 1912.

Brydale Avenue
Brydale Avenue is a short, one block long, dead end, access street with no facing structures. It runs north from Hogarth just east of Broadview. The street may have been named for a local developer.

Busy Street
In some sources it is confused with Bisley Street. Busy is a one block long street running parallel to Queen from Verral to Logan and is built only on the north side. There are a number of commercial properties and one detached residence. Busy street is not busy. The origin of the name has not been determined. It could be named for a member of the Busy family. This could also be another case of misspelling, Busy instead of Bussy or Busey or Bussey.

Carlaw Avenue
Carlaw Avenue, late Gorry Street, was named for Major John A. Carlaw, born 1840. He was Paymaster for the Grank Trunk Railway, and a property owner in the area (O) (Arthur). The G.T.R. was an important presence in Riverdale with the Riverdale station, now lost, located on De Grassi Street, near Queen Street.

Carroll Street
This street sets a record in Riverdale for the number of names it has born over the years. The building at the northwest corner of Carroll and Matilda was once 18 Matilda Street. It was built in 1909, Charles Herbert Acton Bond, architect, for the Imperial Extract Company, producers of Shirriff Marmalade. In 1926 the factory has its own railway siding. It was off the Canadian Pacific Railway Don Branch that split off the main line near Winchester Street and then came south down the east side of the Don River, ending at Queen Street (research by Derek Bowles).

Cavell Avenue
Cavell Avenue was formerly Dresden Avenue. It was renamed for British nurse and nursing pioneer Edith Cavell, 1865-1915 (O) (J). While working in occupied Belgium during the First World War she assisted some two hundred Allied soldiers to escape. She was executed by the Germans to the outrage of the civilized world. The original German name was replaced as a result. Cavell is a short residential street running east from Carlaw past Pape and south of Harcourt.

Clark Street
It was named for Edward Frederick Clarke, 1850-1905.

Colgate Avenue
This street was named for the Colgate factory which once stood in the area. 

Commissioners Street
Commissioners Street was named for Asa (meaning physician or cure, the name of the third King of Judah) Danforth, a U.S. colonizer and road builder, 1746-1836 (Arthur) (O). From 1799 to 1800 he built part of Kingston Road. He also designed early Queen Street. Danforth Avenue was built in 1855 by the Danforth Plank Road Company.

There are four notable heritage structures on Danforth Avenue on the northern boundary of Riverdale, the Public Lavatory Building, the Music Hall, Danforth Baptist Church and St. Barnabas Anglican Church.

Davies Avenue
Davies Avenue, late Mill Street, was named for Thomas Davies, 1813-1869, a brewer. Thomas Davies left England for Canada in 1832 aboard the same vessel carrying William Gooderham and his family. Gooderham became a distiller just west of the mouth of the Don. Davies, after starting out as a farmer, began a brewery up the Don. He and his wife Fedelia Jones had seven children and, after the brewery was started in 1849, lived in a large home at 33 River Street.

Dearbourne Avenue
Dearbourne Avenue, late Battye Avenue, 1896, was for a local property owner. Battye was probably for Thomas Battye who lived on Danforth Avenue just east of Broadview in 1886.

De Grassi Street
De Grassi Street, 1886, was named after Alfio De Grassi who was prominent in the Masonic Order in the 1870s, and an engineer in the Toronto Fire Department. He was descended from Captain Philippe De Grassi.

Dibble Street
Dibble Street was formerly that part of Strange Street south of the railway tracks. It was probably named for Robert George Dibble, 1891- 1960, a single sculls rowing champion with the Don Rowing Club, established 1878.Colgate Avenue was named for the Colgate factory which once stood in the area

Dickens Street
Dickens Street honours author Charles Dickens 1812-1870. 

Dingwall Avenue
Dingwall Avenue is from Dingwall, the County town of Ross-shire, near the head of the Cromarty Firth, N.W. of Inverness. It was the Scottish home of the Bain Family. The most notable house on Dingwall is number 14, originally the Sargant Mansion, it is now known as the Bain House.

Empire Avenue
The development of Empire was rather late, considering its proximity to Queen Street. It demonstrates the influence of the railway line on settlement, blocking it to the east for some time and encouraging the Dunlop Tire Company to build next to the line north of Queen.

27 Empire was the home of Olwen Anderson who was the subject of a Riverdale Historical Society event in 2010.

Fairview Boulevard
Fairview Boulevard, late Fairview Avenue, 1911, was changed because of street name duplication. Number 51 was the home of Gertrude Frankland, daughter of politician Henry Frankland, Frankland Public School on Logan, and her husband George Vick, son of John Vick.

Fenwick Avenue
Fenwick Avenue probably honours the Fenwick family. On Thursday December 29, 1808 James Fenwick of Markham married Eleanor Thomson of Scarborough in St. James Anglican Church, York. James was an officer in the 3rd York Militia. Eleanor was a member of the Thomson family, founders of Scarborough. Their descendants to the fifth generation lived in Toronto in 1898. Their son, William Green Fenwick, was baptized at St. James’ on March 7, 1810. The sponsors were Hugh Thomson and Mary Thomson. In 1907 William H. Fenwick, a cartage agent at 286 King Street East, lived at 507 Logan Avenue. 

First Avenue
There was a Second Street south of First. It was in the City Directory in 1892, listed as running from Broadview to Bolton, not built on. From 1893 to 1902 Second Street was listed with the house, barn and fields of Mary Smith, the window of John Smith. She apparently died in 1896 and in 1897 the house was occupied by Edward Smith and from 1898 to 1902 by Edward and Joseph Smith, probably her sons. Second Street was not listed in 1903 when the Smith property became the Broadview Boys Institute.

First Avenue is notable for three churches, the present Chinese Alliance Church, originally First Avenue Baptist Church, 1887, and carefully restored in 2011, St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church, 1910, facing on Gerrard Street East, but extending to First and with the Rectory on First, and St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, 1890.

First Avenue, east from De Grassi and Tiverton and West Avenue comprise the Riverdale Heritage Conservation District, phase one, 2009.

Frizzell Avenue
Frizzell Avenue is named for Rev. William Frizzell, who was called to the pastorate of Queen Street East Presbyterian Church in 1882. He was a well known itinerant preacher who died in 1910. In 1886 he is listed as living on the east side of Broadview, north of Queen. Frizzell was convener of the Presbyterian Synod committee on temperance, a hotly debated social issue in the last half of the century. He favoured total prohibition because of the misery and suffering resulting from drink.

Garnock Avenue
Garnock Avenue is corrupted from Carnock on early street maps. Carnock is a village in the County of Fife, Scotland.

Gough Avenue
Gough Avenue, late Moscow Avenue, 1922, was probably named for William E. Gough who had a dairy at number 25. Another possibility is Richard Patrick Joseph Gough Sr., 1865-1935. He was a prominent business man and philanthropist who was associated with the Sellers Gough fur business and other enterprises. He was a Vice President of the Home Bank but was absolved from any blame when the bank failed. His other activities included membership in the York Pioneer Historical Society. It was probably changed from Moscow because the Russian Revolution.

Grandview Avenue
Grandview Avenue is named for its view over Riverdale, as in Fairview and Broadview. This block long residential street runs from Logan to Hampton on the slope that rises towards Danforth Avenue. It was part of Lot 13 granted to by Governor Simcoe in 1793 to Frederick Brown. The house at 56 Grandview, at the northwest corner of Grandview and Logan originally faced on Logan. It is one of the oldest houses, and possibly the only market garden cottage, remaining in the area.

Grant Street
Mrs. Forsyth Grant was an author who wrote newspaper and magazine articles and the travel book “Scenes in Hawaii, or Life in the Sandwich Islands,” Hart and Co., Toronto, 1888. She was President of the Canadian Women’s Historical Society of Toronto and President of the Ladies Relief Society in Toronto. She was a founder of the Toronto Home for Incurables. In 1925-1926 Lt. Col. Noel George Lambert Marshal, was President of the Board of Management of the Toronto Home for Incurables, which became the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

A feature of Grant Street is a pair of back-of-lot attached houses on the west side, apparently isolated when a cross street was not completed. 

Hamilton Street
Hamilton Street, 1886, late Harris Street below Kintyre, 1892, is named for William Hamilton Jr., City Councilman, 1865 and Alderman, 1870-1875. It could also have been named for prominent merchants. In 1886 the street ran north from Paul (Kintyre) to Elliott (Dundas) and was not numbered. There were eleven residents on the east side and fifteen on the west side. There was also a public school. Harris Street was a now closed part of Hamilton running north from Queen. It had ten residents on the east side and five on the west side and was not numbered. It may have been for the Harris family. Hamilton Street has a number of notable Victorian homes. It may also have the smallest house in Riverdale.

Hampton Avenue
Hampton Avenue was named for Hampton Court Palace. The palace was built during the reign of King Henry VIII, 1491-1547 by Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York who gave it to the King in an unsuccessful attempt to regain his favour. The palace is one of the great architectural and historical treasures of Britain. George II was the last regaining sovereign to occupy the palace. Hampton is a residential street running from Sparkhall to the Danforth.

Harcourt Avenue
Harcourt Avenue, late Englewood Avenue, 1914, may be named for Frederick Weir Harcourt, 1855-1932. He was a lawyer with the firm of McCarthy, Osler, Hoskin and Creelman, and in 1916, Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt.

Heward Avenue
Heward Avenue probably recognizes the Heward family who purchased land in the area from the Robinsons. Like the Robinsons they were one of Ontario’s most prominent 19th century families, beginning with Steven Heward, 1977-1828. Like many of his generation Steven began his career in the military and in 1806 wed Mary Robinson, the sister of Christopher Robinson. 

Hogarth Avenue
Hogarth late Wilson Street to 1896, was probably named for the Wilson family who lived in the area. Hogarth Street was named for George Hogarth who owned a farm on the east side of Broadview Avenue opposite Riverdale Park.

The family lived at 58 Hogarth, which was the original farmhouse built in 1875 by Thomas Hogarth, Headmaster of Boulton Street School, resigned 1882 (Toronto Daily Mail). Members of the Hogarth family belonged to the St. Matthew’s Lawn Bowling Club.

Another notable Hogarth Avenue residence is the Owen Staples House and Studio at 69 Hogarth, 1904. Artist Owen Staples, 1866-1949, was known as the “painter of Canada’s past.” The house was designed in the arts and crafts style by Owen Staples and his artist friend, C.W. Jeffries, and built by Jeffries father, C.T. Jeffries. Staples was a prolific artist and illustrator, a member of the Toronto Arts and Letters Club and a long time member of the Mendelssohn Choir. The studio was a regular gathering place for artists and their supporters, including John Ross Robertson, publisher of the Toronto Telegram. The home is still in the Staples family.

Howland Road
Howland Road, late Elizabeth Street, 1882, late Robert Street, 1892, honours William Holmes Howland, mayor of Toronto, 1886-1887, who campaigned against the unlicensed sale of liquor. He was the eldest son of Sir William Pierce Howland. Father of Confederation, Minister of Internal Revenue in Canada’s first Cabinet, under Sir John A. MacDonald and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, 1868-1873.

Howie Avenue
Howie is a prominent Scottish name, a sept or branch, of the Clan MacDonald. The street name is likely linked to a member of the family, many of whom immigrated to Canada. John Howie, 1833-1895 was a successful industrialist and one of the richest men in Scotland

Ingham Avenue
Ingham Avenue, late Millbrook Street, was named for Joshua Ingham. He was born in Lancashire, England in 1833 and came to Canada in 1862, settled in Toronto and was married to Harriet Axom of Cheshire, England. They had seven children and resided on Don Mills Road near the Danforth. Joshua, as part of the firm of Crawford and Co. was engaged in buying, selling and exporting sheep and cattle, a not unusual occupation in early Riverdale, where the Gooderhams plied their extensive cattle rising business.

June Callwood Way
June Callwood Way, 2006, was named for June Callwood, 1924-1977, a Canadian print and TV journalist, author and social activist. 

Kintyre Avenue
Kintyre Avenue, 1905, late Paul Street, west of Broadview, 1886, may be from Kintyre, a long narrow peninsula in Argyllshire, Scotland, between the Atlantic and the Firth of Clyde, the birthplace in 1822 of Alexander Milloy, who came to Canada in 1830 and entered the shipping business.

Langley Avenue
In 1886, Langley Avenue has no residents. The north side was not built on and the south side had two vacant houses. There are a number of notable homes on Langley Avenue. The house at 14 Langley has a third floor under the eaves balcony found in other houses in Riverdale. At 28-30 Langley is a remarkable example of semi-detached residences.

Lewis Street
Lewis Street, 1886 is named for Catherine Lewis, wife of John Saulter, a local farmer. In 1805 John Saulter and Catherine Lewis were married at St. James Anglican Church. 

Logan Avenue
It was late Logan’s Line, 1884, late Blong Street, 1889. It was named for the Logan family, local market gardeners, for one John Logan, a gardener, 1800-1870. It was Blong Avenue prior to 1887, when Blong replaced Booth Avenue. In 1892 Blong replaced Norfolk Avenue, east off Pape, two north of Queen. Edward Blong belonged to the firm of Thompson, Flanagan and Blong, butchers. There was also Blong and Strachan, real estate.

633-635 Logan Avenue is the most notable of the commercial structures in the Logan Avenue commercial district which flourished between the First and Second World Wars from Withrow Avenue to Riverdale Avenue.

McGee Street
McGee Street, 1886, was late D’Arcy Street, 1876. The D’Arcy is probably from D’Arcy Boulton. It was changed as a result of street name duplication. Perhaps McGee was taken from another D’Arcy, the father of Confederation Thomas D’Arcy McGee, 1825-1864. Running south from Queen, McGee is one of the early streets of Riverdale. In 1886 McGee was a numbered street with twenty-three residents on the east side and six on the west side.

Millbrook Crescent
Millbrook Crescent, late Winchester Drive, 1905, is probably derived from the stream which ran from the vicinity of Withrow Park to the Don River. 

Montcrest Boulevard
Montcrest Boulevard, late Hogarth Avenue, late Private Road, is from Montcrest School which has property on the street. Montcrest is a dead-end residential street that runs west off Broadview opposite Hogarth and borders Riverdale park on the south side.

Morse Street It was named for George Dennis Morse, 1833-1887, a cattle dealer who drowned in the Don. It originally ran north from the bay to Queen Street. Morse came to Toronto with his family in 1836 from Cleveland, Ohio. He and his brothers John and William began their cattle business in 1864

Munro Street
Munro Street, 1886, is an old lower income residential street running north from Kintyre to Dundas. It is named for George Munro, 1801-1878, a grocery merchant and politician.

Natalie Place
Natalie Place, 1886, late Natalie Street, late Melford Street, is a crescent shaped residential street of modern town houses running east and south from Logan to Colgate. It is an example of a new settlement on a relatively old street in Riverdale.

Queen Street
Queen Street, 1886, was late Kingston Road until 1884. This is the oldest street in Riverdale and was originally referred to as “the road to Montreal”.

In the early 1840s it was named Queen Street in honour of Queen Victoria.

Queen Street was, however, Riverdale’s first and most important commercial street.

The oldest still existing building in Toronto and the first building on Queen Street is the Scadding Cabin., 1794, which John Scadding had built by William Smith to comply with the terms of his land grant. The cabin was removed to the grounds of the CNE in 1879. It originally stood just south of the present bridge. There is a R.H.S. plaque commemorating the Scadding Cabin at the east end of the Queen Street bridge over the Don.

Riverdale Avenue
Riverdale Avenue, 1886, was late Smith street in 1884 and renamed for Riverdale Park in 1907. The original Riverdale Avenue was laid out opposite Smith Street, west of Broadview in the present Riverdale Park but was not built on.

68 Riverdale is the 1885 designated William and Ada Jeffries House. It is a fine example of the Second Empire style, made popular in Toronto by the architectural firm of Langley, Langley and Burke, who may have designed it. William Jeffries was a furrier cutter. The Jeffries family lived in this house until 1941.

74 Riverdale is the listed 1891 John Benjamin Vick House. It is a fine example of late Victorian architecture with a balcony under the third floor eaves, a feature found in a number of houses of this period in Riverdale.

98 Riverdale was built from designs by Mallory Brothers in 1889 for Noel George Lambert Marshall, 1852-1926 and his wife Harriet Isabel Hogg. Noel Marshall was one of Riverdale’s most illustrious residents. The house is a fine example of late Victorian architecture with a right hand veranda entrance with balcony over, twostorey bays at the front and on the west side, bracketed under the roof, a low arched window in front with stained glass over and originally with a lunette window on the third floor shingled front gable. There were five chimneys with eleven flues.

Sparkhall Avenue
Sparkhall Avenue is named for Cubit Sparkhall Junior, a local farmer and butcher. Cubit Sparkhall Sr., died 1821, married the sister of James Worts, the founder of Godderham and Worts.

Sunlight Park Road
Sunlight refers to a major soap product of Lever brothers Limited. The now closed Lever plant is located to the south of the street which does not lead to the plant. The street commemorates Sunlight Park, originally known as the Toronto Baseball Grounds, the city’s first baseball park. Built south of Queen Street west of Broadview near the Don in 1886, it had a wooden stadium seating two thousand two hundred and was home to Toronto’s International League baseball team. It was the setting for the city’s first professional baseball championship in 1887. In 1896 the Park was replaced by a stadium at Hanlan’s point. 

Tennis Crescent
Tennis Crescent may be for the tennis courts of the St. Matthew’s Lawn Tennis Club which was located nearby on the east side of Broadview south of Hogarth Avenue in 1908 or for the tennis courts set up in Riverdale Park. In 1912 William Hogarth, a florist, lived at number 12.

Victor Avenue
Victor Avenue, 1886, was named for Victor Thomas, a sporting man of the area. One might speculate that the sport was horse racing, very popular in the 19th century York-Toronto, which was horse dependent for transport and where there were many retired army officers. A number of private stables remain in Riverdale. In 1886 Victor was not built on.

The residence at 20 Victor was the home of Thomas Foster, mayor of Toronto, 1925-1927.

52-54 Victor is probably the tallest residence in Riverdale. 54 was once the home of Elgin Schoff of the law firm of Schoff and Eastwood.

Withrow Avenue
Withrow Avenue was named in honour of John Jacob Withrow, 1833-1900. He is also honoured with Withrow Public School on Withrow Avenue and nearby Withrow Park.

Wolfrey Avenue
Wolfrey Avenue, late Woolfrey, late Florence Street, was once in two parts with two spellings. It may be for Thomas Woolfrey whose widow was housekeeper for Ernest Macdonald, 1858-1902, a major real estate developer and builder in Riverdale. 

Wroxeter Avenue
Wroxeter Avenue, late Globe Avenue, 1913, is possibly named for Wroxeter, a village of Shropshire, England. Wroxeter is a residential street running east from Withrow Park and extending half a block past Pape. It is located on the Robinson land grant and is a street that was part of the development of the area resulting from the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct.