It serves the Bloor West Village, Baby Point, High Park North and Junction neighbourhoods.

The motto of the school is "Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas", a Latin phrase from Virgil's work Georgics, meaning "Happy is the person who has been able to learn the reasons for things".

[2] Humberside was established in 1892 as "Toronto Junction High School" in the basement of the local Presbyterian church.

It moved to the current site in 1894 in the High Park area of Toronto, with the construction of a new Richardsonian Romanesque building.

[citation needed] In the late 1920s, Group of Seven artist Arthur Lismer was commissioned by the school to paint what is thought to be the largest Canadian mural.

[citation needed] In 2005, Mel Greif retired after thirty years of teaching history and geography.