Blue Grass Meadows

Blue Grass Meadows covers the east side of Whitby's older urban area between Dundas Street on the south and Rossland Road on the north, running from about Garden Street east past Anderson Street and Thickson Road to the Oshawa boundary. Anderson Street is its spine. The Dundas and Thickson commercial corners are inside it, and some guides carry the name down to the 401 along Thickson Road South.

The core stock is 1965 to 1985: brick bungalows and raised bungalows with attached single garages, backsplits and sidesplits with four levels, and the first generation of two-storey colonials, most on lots of 50 to 70 feet with deep yards and mature maples. Streets near Anderson and Dundas are the oldest; the blocks toward Rossland and east of Thickson toward Garrard Road came in the late 1970s and 1980s, with some 1990s infill near Rossland. Many houses have had one full renovation, and an increasing number are being torn down or built up into large custom homes, so the streetscape mixes original ranch bungalows with new two-storeys. Townhouse rows and a few low-rise rental and condominium buildings sit on the Dundas and Thickson edges, and the Dundas corridor is designated for mixed-use intensification, so mid-rise proposals along it are likely. Wiring, plumbing and insulation vary with the renovation history, so inspect for aluminum wiring and original galvanized supply lines in the earliest houses.

Blue Grass Meadows sits closer to the 401 than any Whitby neighbourhood except Port Whitby: the Thickson Road interchange is at its southeast corner and Brock Street's is a few minutes west along Dundas. Whitby GO on Brock Street South is a five to ten minute drive, and Durham Region Transit's 305 runs down Thickson to the station while the 900 PULSE on Dundas Street, the agency's flagship limited-stop route, connects to the Oshawa Centre and to Ajax and Pickering. PULSE 916 runs the Rossland edge. Highway 407 is reached north on Thickson. On foot, the grid of long crescents between Dundas and Rossland is walkable to schools and to the Dundas plazas, though the arterials themselves are wide and fast. Cyclists use Anderson Street and the quieter streets; there is no separated bike lane on Dundas through here.

The public high school is Anderson Collegiate and Vocational Institute on Anderson Street, opened in 1960, whose gifted program draws students from across Whitby, and elementary students attend Durham District School Board schools such as Glen Dhu, Bellwood and C.E. Broughton depending on the street. Catholic families have St. Paul on Garrard Road, which offers French immersion, St. John the Evangelist on Giffard Street to the west, and secondary at Father Leo J. Austin or All Saints. Both boards set catchments by address and revise them, and the east edge near the Oshawa line can be assigned across Thickson rather than to the nearest building, so verify before you commit. Durham College's Whitby campus for skilled trades on Champlain Avenue is just south of the 401.

Parks here are the mature kind: tree-shaded neighbourhood parks with ball diamonds and older playgrounds, and D'Hillier Park on Anderson Street with fields and a playground near the high school. The McKinney Centre arenas, tennis courts and skatepark are on the north edge off Rossland Road East, and the Civic Recreation Complex pool sits at Rossland and Garden. Daily errands happen at Dundas and Thickson, where a mall-turned-plaza and its neighbours hold grocery stores, banks and a pharmacy, with Costco and the Whitby Entertainment Centrum cinema south of Dundas on Thickson. Downtown Whitby's restaurants and the Central Library on Dundas Street West are a short drive or a bus stop away. Thickson's Woods and the Corbett Creek marsh at the lake are close for birdwatchers, and Iroquois Park's pool and arenas are ten minutes down Victoria Street. The nearest emergency department remains Lakeridge Health Oshawa.

Blue Grass Meadows suits buyers who want a big lot and mature trees close to the 401 and the GO train, and who are happy to renovate or rebuild a 1970s house: young families who prize yard over new finishes, downsizers who want a bungalow they can age in, and builders. It is not the right fit for anyone who wants a new house with a warranty, a townhouse or condo choice, or a quiet interior street far from arterial traffic, since Dundas, Thickson and Rossland box it in. Buyers who dislike the mix of teardowns and originals on one street should look further north.