History
York Downs Golf and Country Club was founded in 1922 by Edward Cronyn and friends on the former John Bales farm on Bathurst Street south of Sheppard Avenue in North York, with a course designed by C.H. Alison and built under the supervision of Stanley Thompson & Co. As the area urbanized, the club sold the land in 1968 and moved to a new Cornish & Robinson course on 16th Avenue in Unionville in 1971. After protests halted a housing plan, Metro Toronto bought the property in 1972, and it is now Earl Bales Park, where some old bunkers and mounds can still be seen.
