Norwood Park has been around for a long time. It was at one point part of a private park known as “Benlamond Park”

January 16, 1914
Creator: Goss, Arthur, 1881-1940
Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 52, Item 243
City of Toronto Archives
www.toronto.ca/archives

The area which presently comprises the park was owned by Benjamin Morton and the Ewart family before the turn of the 20th century. 

The park offered amenities above and beyond simply a place to enjoy nature, including a shelter built a century ago, which is still in existence

It would seem that there were a few differing plans produced for this shelter in 1923

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before a finalized version in 1924 resulted in the shelter which was built

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By the end of the 1930s, a woman by the name of Mrs. Emma Davis owned the tract of land.  Sadly, by 1938, Mrs. Davis was found not competent to manage her affairs.  As such, her large 13 room house at number 2 Norwood Road (which was in very poor repair) and the remainder of her estate (which included most of the current Norwood Park, all of Glen Oak Drive, and parts of Glenmount Park and Benlamond Avenue) was put into a trust.  The committee members of the trust were to administer the property of Mrs. Davis as she had been determined by the court to be “insane” (as they termed her back then).

The trustees divided the property into residential-size plots and sold them off, leaving the remainder as a public park…Norwood Park.

For decades the park itself offered residents an opportunity to play lawn bowling and had a building specifically built for that purpose.  

In about 2000, with the interest in lawn bowling declining, the pitch was repurposed to a leash-free area for dogs.