Rose Hill

Jesse Ketchum presented the two-hundred-acre lot 16 to his daughter Anna and her husband, Walter Rose, in the late 1830s. The red brick house, which stood just north of todays Jackes Avenue, back from Yonge Street, had a centre hall and verandah. The stables were to the north, while oak forest and fields stretched east to Bayview. After Walter Rose died, the Rose Hill property was divided and sold. In 1865, Joseph Jackes bought the house and the property which then extended from Woodlawn nearly to Rosehill Avenue. Joseph and Emma had many children, and Joseph commuted to his law offices in Toronto. In 1872, the city acquired a large part of the property for a reservoir. After the Jackes died, their son, Edwin lived here until he died in 1930. After lying vacant for a number of years, it was demolished in 1948 to make way for apartment buildings. Jackes, Avoca, and Rosehill Avenues remain to remind us of former owners. (See Avoca Villa) (For more about Rose Hill and its owners, see “The Estatesof Old Toronto” by Liz Lundell).