Village edges

For all its rapid growth, Vaughan still guards a few genuine villages at its edges — and Kleinburg is the jewel. A historic main street, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in the woods nearby, and estate lots among the trees give it a small-town, upscale calm a world away from the subdivisions and the highways.

Maple, further south, is the more everyday version of the idea: an old village core that grew into a large, established family community, with its own GO station and a strong neighbourhood identity. It’s where a lot of Vaughan families put down roots.

Newer communities like Vellore Woods fill in around them — big, modern family homes on planned streets. The pattern is classic Vaughan: pockets of village history and character surrounded by the fast, confident growth of one of the GTA’s youngest cities.