Bayview Glen

The place

Bayview Glen lies east of Bayview Avenue in the City of Markham, between John Street to the north and Steeles Avenue to the south, where Thornhill meets Toronto. The East Don River runs through the middle of it, and the Bayview Golf and Country Club occupies that valley, so the neighbourhood wraps around the course in a horseshoe of curving streets. Thornhill as a whole straddles Yonge Street and two cities; Bayview Glen is as far east as Markham-side Thornhill goes before the German Mills valley.

The land was farmed until the subdivision plans of the 1960s. Stonefarm Park on Apricot Street keeps the hedgerow that lined the drive from Steeles Avenue up to the Stone family farmhouse, which was removed when the streets were laid out. The golf course came in the same era, and the houses around it were built through the 1960s and 1970s for families who wanted a country club setting within sight of the city limits. The Thornhill Community Centre at Bayview and John, opened in 1975, was built to serve this generation of residents and still does.

The houses

The original houses are substantial for their era: colonial two-storeys with centre halls, Tudor revival houses with half-timbered gables, and long ranch bungalows that stretch across wide lots. A few townhouse enclaves were tucked in near Bayview Avenue. Nearly all were built with large front lawns, multiple-car garages and a deliberate distance from the street.

Those original houses have been giving way to custom construction for two decades, and today a rebuilt house is as common as an original on most streets. A new house in Bayview Glen is typically a full two storeys with a finished walk-out lower level, stone and brick elevations, a three-car garage and a rear elevation of glass facing the course or the ravine. Because the lots are so large, these houses can be built without the cramped side yards that compromise rebuilds elsewhere in Thornhill. French, transitional and contemporary designs all appear, and the best of them are set back as far as the originals were.

Streets and lots

Bayview Fairways Drive follows the northern edge of the golf course and is the most requested address, with lots that back directly onto fairways. Fairway Heights Drive leads to the club itself. Kings Inn Trail, Laureleaf Road and the crescents off them hold the larger original houses and most of the rebuilds, and Limcombe Drive, where the public school sits, is the quieter southern interior. Apricot Street runs along Stonefarm Park.

The streets curve, which means lots are irregular: wide at the front, deep on the outside of a bend, and occasionally pie-shaped at the end of a court. There are no sidewalks, and the roads are wide, which gives the neighbourhood a low, open feel. The best addresses are the lots that back onto the golf course or onto the East Don ravine, where the rear boundary is trees rather than a fence. Mature evergreens line many of the streets, planted when the subdivision was new and now at full height.

Living here

The golf club is the anchor. The Bayview Golf and Country Club is a private eighteen-hole course in the valley with swimming, tennis and curling alongside the golf. Settlers Park and Stonefarm Park serve the streets around them, and the Thornhill Community Centre at 7755 Bayview Avenue has twin rinks, a therapy pool, squash courts, a gym and a public library, as well as the city’s largest rental hall. The trail along the East Don north of John Street leads into Pomona Mills Park.

Shopping is on Steeles Avenue and Bayview Avenue, where small plazas hold supermarkets and local businesses, and the larger shops of Yonge Street are a few minutes west. Highway 404 is reached from Steeles, and Highway 407 from Bayview or Leslie. Finch Station is a short drive south, and TTC and York Region Transit buses run on Steeles and Bayview. The drive downtown is about half an hour when traffic is light. School boundaries change, so buyers should confirm designated schools with the board.

Buying and selling in Bayview Glen

Homes come to market in Bayview Glen in small numbers, and the golf course and ravine lots far less often than the interior streets. Original houses in sound condition are bought as lots by builders and by families planning a custom home, and they generally sell openly. Rebuilt houses and the finest lots are held for long periods and sold with discretion, often to buyers who have registered their interest with an agent before anything is listed. Buyers come from across Thornhill, from North York across Steeles, and from families who want a Toronto-border address with lot sizes the city no longer offers.

Sellers of original houses should recognise that their buyer is valuing frontage, depth and the view at the back, and that a top-of-bank survey settles more questions than a fresh kitchen. Sellers of rebuilt houses should expect a measured pace and buyers who are comparing against Bayview Hill and the estate streets of South Richvale. If you are watching this neighbourhood, join the private register and we will tell you when something is about to come up, listed or not.

Bayview Glen is where Thornhill’s lots are largest and its streets most generous. It has a golf course where other neighbourhoods have a park, and the city line a few blocks away. For a buyer who wants an estate lot without leaving the edge of Toronto, there is no closer place to look.