The area is named for the farm settled by Justice of the Peace John Perkins Bull called
Downs View in 1842 near Keele Street and Rustic Road, then in
York County,
Upper Canada. Other historical landmarks from this period include The
George Jackson House, which was also designated heritage property. In 1850, the area became part of
York Township, and in 1927, became part of
North York Township, which eventually became the City of North York. In 1998, the area became part of the city of Toronto. In April 1929, William De Havilland bought of farmland to build a manufacturing facility for
De Havilland Canada. The facility was expanded during the 1930s and particularly during the Second World War, and became Canada's largest supplier of military, civilian and government-owned aircraft, as well as the site of several aviation firsts and record-breaking flights. In the 1950s, the Ontario provincial government developed the
Downsview Complex, which currently houses a number of provincial offices, as well as a detachment from the
Ontario Provincial Police. In 1969, a large residential complex of five 19-storey high apartment buildings, known as Jane-Exbury Towers, was completed in 1969. Designed by architect
Uno Prii, they are noted for their mid-century expressionist features. 's garage depot in Downsview, 1979 The military base and the
de Havilland company, including the runway and all buildings, was closed and sold to Bombardier Aerospace in 1994. Bombardier has been manufacturing and testing commercial aircraft on the site since then. Some 1000 de Havilland DH 98 Mosquito aircraft were built by the company at Downsview during the Second World War. On August 10, 2008, just before 4 a.m.,
massive explosions occurred at the Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases
propane facility, at 54 Murray Rd., located immediately north-east of the intersection of
Keele Street and
Wilson Avenue. An employee of the facility and a firefighter were killed as a result of the explosions. Mayor
David Miller had publicly expressed his condolences to the families of the victims shortly thereafter. Redevelopment of the Downsview Complex began in 2011. The redevelopment of the complex saw the completion of the
Humber River Hospital, which opened in 2015. The
acute care hospital is situated on Wilson Avenue and
Keele Street. ==Demographics==