<p> In 1824 William Botsford Jarvis bought a parcel of land east of Yonge Street and north of Bloor Street. On it, he built a house near what is now Rosedale Road. Jarvis' wife, Mary, gave the homestead the name "Rosedale" from the wild roses that grew there. In the 1850's William's nephew, Edgar John Jarvis, acquired more land and began to develop Rosedale. His wife, Charlotte, was quoted years later in a newspaper interview: "It was difficult to sell Rosedale properties because Toronto women thought it was so far out of the city they could not get maids and were afraid of roughing it." </p><p>
