[2] Gordon is located on the northern outskirts, about 18 kilometres from the Sydney central business district in the upper area of the North Shore.

The name of the village and Post Office was changed to Gordon, after the Gordondale estate of Robert McIntosh, on 1 June 1879.

The first meeting of the Ku-ring-gai Shire Council was held at the Parish Hall of St John's Anglican Church in Gordon on 8 December 1906.

In 1911, a small Shire Council building was built on what is today the Pacific Highway, where Gordon currently remains the administration of local government.

The development was particularly influenced by the housing boom of the 1920s, with large homes being built on sizeable blocks of land.

Gordon became a popular location for professionals and families, who looked to escape the congestion of inner-city living while still being able to commute to work in Sydney.

Many of the suburb's houses built during the period were in the mix of Federation and Californian Bungalow styles, typical of its era.

It also had a significant Ikea store on the corner of the Pacific Highway and Ryde Road (opposite the former 3M site on the northern or Pymble side of the intersection, circa 2014-2020 under legally frustrated intent to renovate for use by Bunnings[5][6]).

The former Gordon Public School, now largely demolished and rebuilt as the library and police station, was constructed in 1878 on the Pacific Highway, having been designed by George Mansfield.

[13] Gordon is located on a major transport artery, the Pacific Highway and near the intersection of Ryde and Mona Vale roads which form a link between the Northern Beaches, Homebush Bay and the St George District and Sutherland Shire.

A bus stop outside the station is a terminus for various routes including those to St Ives, West Pymble, Mona Vale/Warriewood and Macquarie University.

Junior Rugby League teams on the North Shore fall within the North Sydney District, in which clubs compete in a Joint District with Manly Warringah, and Gordon (The seat of Ku-ring-gai Council) is represented by the team that more specifically represents the LGA, the Ku-ring-gai Cubs, who play at Memorial Park in Turramurra Eryldene is a local historic house that is open to the public.

Located in McIntosh Street, the house was designed for Professor Eben Gowrie Waterhouse by William Hardy Wilson and built circa 1913.

The land changed hands many times until it was acquired by the Donaldson family, who commissioned Waterhouse to design the house.

[23] 45.3% of occupied private dwellings in Gordon are separate houses, 48.3% are flats, units or apartments and 3.5% are semi-detached (mainly townhouses).