“Ha-ha” No More

Despite being located on Yonge Street, the busiest street in the Greater Toronto area, the Poplar Villa is surprisingly quite hidden, if it wasn’t for @vanessad846 post, I would have missed it.

Originally, the house was located behind a stone sunk wall, a “ha-ha” in old English.

The name Poplar Villa, most likely derived from the Poplar trees around the estate.

The coned shaped corner tower and mushroom shaped veranda for many years, have drawn newlyweds to stay here for their honeymoons, giving rise to its other name, the Chateau.

As urbanization caught up, the Aurora section of Yonge was widened in 1968. The 2 ft stone “ha-ha”, became a 40 ft concrete wall, hiding the villa from passersby.

Even today, Aurora is quite rural as a suburb of Toronto. This must have been such a grand structure to admire, 100 years ago in rural Aurora.

15074 Yonge Street, Aurora