2. Bud Sugarman Park - 955 Yonge Street

Called the “unofficial mayor of Yorkville,” Budd Sugarman was the namesake of this small park along Yonge Street. A long-time merchant in the neighbourhood, he was an important figure in preserving the neighbourhood’s character and in establishing the Village of Yorkville Park. This spot affords a good view of Yonge Street as it dips alongside Ramsden Park and Rosedale subway station, a subtle trace of buried Castle Frank Brook below. Ramsden Park itself was originally a Victorian brickworks, its yellow clay giving Yorkville buildings and homes their distinctive colour.

Yonge Street was named after George Yonge, a friend of Ontario’s first governor general John Graves Simcoe. Yonge never visited Toronto and a more appropriate name might be Berczy Street, as William Berczy was an early German pioneer, sometimes considered a co-founder of Toronto, who helped clear what became the settlement of York and built fifteen miles of Yonge Street starting at Eglinton.