1. Nordheimer Ravine - St. Clair West Station

St. Clair West Station is the northwestern entrance to Nordheimer Ravine, part of a sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, ravine system. The path here follows buried Castle Frank Brook, one of many buried watercourses in Toronto, though it’s often marshy along here, with some running water, a reminder of what’s below. The ravine heads southeast to below the St. Clair Reservoir, a hidden, human-made lake that takes advantage of the high ground here to create water pressure. Under the Spadina Road Bridge, it passes the Russell Hill emergency subway exit as the is deep below. The ravine continues north of St. Clair where it’s called Cedarvale, and souteast of Boulton Drive it meanders much more subtly through residential neighbourhoods until it becomes Rosedale Valley and the creek empties into the Don River.

This stretch is named after Samuel Nordheimer, a Toronto businessman and music promoter born in Memmelsdorf, Bavaria, in 1824. He emigrated to North America with his brother in 1839, arriving in New York, before moving on to Kingston in 1840 and eventually settling in Toronto in 1844. The two brothers started a piano importing business that expanded into a successful sheet music publication that included the rights to “The Maple Leaf Forever”. Like the Heintzman piano company in the Toronto Junction, founded by German immigrants, the Nordheimers began manufacturing their own pianos. He married Edith Boulton in 1871 and built a house high atop the ravine on the south side of the path called Glen Edyth. Though demolished, Glen Edyth Drive still leads up the steep hill to the former mansion site.