It is bounded by York Mills Road to the north, Canadian Pacific Railway to the south, Leslie Street to the west, and Don Valley Parkway to the east.

The area was a considerable distance from the town of York, but the Don River provided an easy means of transportation, and also a source of power for a number of mills along its length.

While the city of Toronto steadily expanded, the Don Mills area remained rural until after the Second World War.

Taylor had limited previous experience in the property development business, but had built a project named the Wrentham Estates in York Mills.

Seeing the profit to be made with such projects, Taylor abandoned the brewery idea and decided to simply build a new town on the 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) he had acquired.

[2] The community was to be built on about 8.35 km2 (3.22 sq mi) of farmland centred at the intersection of Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East, with an expected cost of $200 million.

At Harvard Hancock had studied under a number of the founders of modernism and new town planning including Walter Gropius, William Holford, and Hideo Sasaki.

These studies led Hancock to envision a self-contained community distinguished by consistent design principles and a modernist style.

It was called Yorktown at its initial unveiling, but the name Don Mills was finally adopted at the suggestion of Hancock.

At Wynford Drive and the Don Valley Parkway, a new $300 million cultural project was built on 6.8 hectares (17 acres) of land.

[4] The project was completed in 2014, with the opening of the Ismaili Centre, the Aga Khan Museum and a public park.

[7] Major ethnic and cultural groups (by ancestry) in 2001:[7] The percentage of population below the poverty line dropped from 13% (in 1996) to 12% (in 2001).

To the east, the neighbourhood is bounded by the Don Valley Parkway, a major municipal controlled access highway.