Danforth Gardens' original 4.5 acre site was acquired for $6,500 in 1955. Architects Parrott, Tambling and Witmer were appointed later that year to design a ten room school with a single kindergarten and general purpose room. Stowe and Gould were awarded the building contract in 1956 with an estimate of $ 279,000.

The school opened in September 1957 with John Johnson serving as the school's first principal. However, due to a union strike, plumbers and electricians had not completed their work at the school and while classes began in September, there was no electricity, no lights, no running water, no heat and no toilet facilities. The teachers had no desks, no supplies, no textbooks and no instructional equipment. The students stood in the empty classrooms and after attendance was taken, they were dismissed for the rest of the day.

The principal and one assistant spent the rest of the day registering students from the neighbourhood as the students and parents lined the school corridors and up the street to almost a full block. By the second day of classes, over 400 students had been registered.

Portable washroom facilities were moved onto the property immediately and served the students until November. Stacking chairs were the only furniture for the first week until new desks arrived during the weekend. Electricity was finally provided by October and as the evenings became cooler, the lights were left on in an attempt to keep the school warm. Heating was finally in operation by November.

Plans for a normal, construction-free environment for the students were quickly set aside as a seven room addition and second kindergarten were constructed the following year when enrolment increased to 688. Four more rooms were added in 1960 as the student population reached 824 and the process was repeated in 1962 as enrolment approached 1000. Danforth Gardens student enrolment peaked in 1967 at 1022 but hovered around 950-1000 for several years (1962-1972) and then gradually dropped off to its current level of 500-550 students.

By the time the construction dust settled, it was the Fall of 1958 when the "official" opening took place on November 20th.

The school's proximity to the historic Danforth Road and the 20th century market gardens that supplied the nearby Scarborough Farmers' Market led to the naming of the school as Danforth Gardens.

The bell was rung at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 3, 1957. The students marched into Danforth Gardens School for the very first time. Their classes that day were quite abbreviated. The school had no electricity, no lights, no heat, no water and no toilet facilities. There were no student or teacher desks or chairs, no pencils, no pens, no chalk, no paper, no text books, in fact no instructional materials of any kind. The teachers stood at the front of their standing classes, welcomed them to the school, called the role and within ten minutes dismissed them for the day.

Meanwhile, another drama was unfolding at the office. Two desks and two chairs had been delivered to the school in the week prior to September 3rd. These were the only items of furniture in the school and here the principal and an assistant were registering pupils who had moved into the community since the the end of June. The line of pupils and their parents extended from the front doors of the school, down the walk to the street and up the street almost to the corner. As the principal with his makeshift facilities, struggled to deal with this mass of students, they were shocked to see the line suddenly increase in size. It seemed that they were making no headway at all. Many students recently dismissed from their classes had joined their not-yet registered friends and were accompanying them to school. Some of these were not sure whether they registered or not and went though the process again. In addition, some new students had just adopted a class and a teacher and went to class without the formality of registration.