TORONTO: AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 
and River on the west to Scarborough Beach on the 
east, taking in the Harbour and Ashbridge’s Bay, and 
thus having nearly twenty miles of coast-line within 
the city limits, owing to the semicircular form of the 
Island and the double coast at Simcoe Park. But 
when the electric trolley climbed the bluff known to. 
geologists as the ‘“ Iroquois shore,” less than three 
miles north of the bay, the development of this lofty 
and healthy district began, and within three years it 
has become the most fashionable part of the city. 
Land which cost eighteen dollars a foot ten years ago. 
is now held at $175, and hundreds of acres have: 
changed hands at even greater advances than this. 
The average value of the houses on the Avenue Road 
hill ranges from $12,000 to $15,000. This is with- 
out taking into account the mansions which line the 
hill and dominate the city with an unsurpassed dis- 
tinction of site and variety of type. The old Eng- 
lish hall, the Norman-French chateau, the Italianate 
mansion, and the mediaeval castle are all to be found, 
and so spacious are the grounds surrounding them 
that there is no sense of incongruity produced by the 
different styles. The castle of Sir Henry Pellatt, 
at the head of Walmer Road, with its adjacent stables: 
and gardens, will form when completed one of the 
most magnificent residences on the continent. 
Proud as Torontonians may well be to see such 
splendid dwellings rising in the city, and to know that 
they represent in concrete form the result of the busi- 
ness energy, acumen and executive skill of some of 
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