It absorbed several municipalities, including Lambton Mills and Weston and was eventually known as the City of York.

The area is home today to several ethnic enclaves such as Portuguese, Jamaican and Latin American neighbourhoods.

Teiaiagon, settled by the Iroquois on the eastern bank of the Humber River, where Baby Point is now, was the oldest known settlement on the land that would later become York Township.

[2] York Township was home to one of the original Black communities in the Toronto area, which was populated by many African American fugitive slaves.

[4] From the period of 1850 onwards, individual villages developed such as Parkdale (1879) and Brockton (1881), which were later annexed into Toronto.

[6] This pattern of absorption by Toronto ended as the City no longer wanted to take on the servicing costs of new suburbs.

[7] This was followed in 1923 by the incorporation of the village of Forest Hill, while the residents of Mount Dennis and Silverthorn voted to remain in York.

During this time, American novelist and journalist Ernest Hemingway resided in the Humewood–Cedarvale community, writing for the Toronto Star.

Its former council and administrative building, York Civic Centre, is located at 2700 Eglinton Avenue West, between Black Creek Drive and Keele Street, used for courts and other functions.

The Etobicoke-York Community Council of Toronto administers minor responsibilities within the limits of York and Etobicoke.

Silverthorn (and Fairbank) is described as "Toronto's hidden San Francisco" in reference to its "steep streets, staircases, and unusual views of houses built in what must be the hilliest part of the city.

"[9] This is due to Toronto's topography being shaped by its deep ravines being similar to the hills of San Francisco, especially in Fairbank and Silverthorn.

The Mount Dennis area of Weston was the base for the former campus of Kodak's Canadian operations from 1912 to 2006.

York operated its own bus and streetcar service, until it was absorbed by the Toronto Transit Commission.

Today, the area is served by the Toronto Transit Commission's buses, streetcar, and subway system.

However, city council spared a few lines, including the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, from cancellation, despite Ford's objections.

In 1954, York was formally severed from the county, along with other municipalities situated south of Steeles Avenue to form the upper-tier government of Metropolitan Toronto.

Federally and provincially, eligible residents of York are also able to vote for members of the Parliament of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.