Baker Park | |
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Type | Urban park |
Location | Calgary, Alberta |
Coordinates | 51°6′2.5″N114°13′11.3″W / 51.100694°N 114.219806°W |
Area | 12 hectares (30 acres) |
Operated by | City of Calgary |
Baker Park is a 12-hectare (30-acre) urban park on the bank of the Bow River in the west edge of the city of Calgary. It is part of the pedestrian and bicycle Bow River pathway that links a vast network of urban parks on both sides of the river. Baker Park is situated across the river from Bowness Park east of the Bearspaw Water Intake Pump Station. With its river observation point overlooking the Bow River and Bowness Park and its archways and arbours, it is the "most popular" park in Calgary for outdoor weddings. [1]
Baker Park is named after Dr. Albert Henry Baker (1883–1953), the director of a tuberculosis (TB) sanitorium located on the same site from 1920 to 1979 and demolished in 1989 by Alberta Public Works. [2] The federal government's Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment Department constructed the first buildings in 1918. [2] : 21 Established in 1919 for returning World War I veterans who suffered from TB, the Central Alberta Sanatorium as it was then called, was typical of its era, "isolated, treed and divided into many separate buildings." [3] : 179 [3] : 179 [4] [5] It was "downstream from the old Alberta Ice Company warehouse" (now the Shriner's storage area for antiques). [3] In 1916 Dr. A. H. Baker served on a medical advisory committee investigating the prevalence of TB among Canadian indigenous populations and in 1917, as a member of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, he served in China. In 1918, following a diagnosis of TB he was discharged—though he never required hospitalization. He came to Alberta where he served as Medical Superintendent of the Central Alberta Sanatorium from 1920 to 1950 and as the Alberta Department of Health's director of the tuberculosis division. When Baker retired in 1950 after thirty years of service, the sanitorium was renamed the Baker Memorial Sanatorium in his honour. [2] : 21 [4] The site was nearest what would become the village of Bowness and eventually many Bowness villagers worked at the Sanitorium. By 1962—as more accommodations for TB patients were created elsewhere—the Sanitorium was gradually converted to the Baker Center for the Services of the Handicapped. [3] : 173
One of the legacies of the Baker Centre that is part of Baker Park, is the stand of 1,800 mature trees planted by gardeners from the former sanitorium. [2]
Unlike most Calgary parks Baker Park's "old-fashioned formality" with its "geometrical walkways" and "arrow-straight" tree-lined avenues, reflects its history as a World War I sanitorium. [2] : 21
Along with the riparian native plants and shrubs, Alberta author Terry Bullick noted that the list of family trees include White Spruce, Green Ash, Colorado Spruce, Manitoba Maple, Lodgepole Pine, Bur Oak, Scots Pine, Aspen, Douglas Fir, Larch, Poplar, May Day Tree, Paper Birch, Mountain Ash [ clarification needed ], Weeping Birch, Hawthorn, Manchurian Elm, and Flowering Crabtree. [2] : 19–22 [6]
Asids from the usual picnic areas and pathways, Baker Park also has a disc-golf course. Its promenades, archways, arbour, grass amphitheater, and river observation point make it a prized area for wedding photos. [1] The Baker Park section of the Bow River Pathway runs through rows of trees past the former sanitorium site to a large river observation point. It also features a wildflower mount [7] and a sun bowl in the middle of the park. [2]
The park is maintained by the city of Calgary Recreation Department. [1]
The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These waters ultimately flow through the Nelson River into Hudson Bay. The Bow River runs through the city of Calgary, taking in the Elbow River at the historic site of Fort Calgary near downtown. The Bow River pathway, developed along the river's banks, is considered a part of Calgary's self-image.
A sanatorium, also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a healthy climate, usually in the countryside. The idea of healing was an important reason for the historical wave of establishments of sanatoria, especially at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. One sought, for instance, the healing of consumptives especially tuberculosis or alcoholism, but also of more obscure addictions and longings of hysteria, masturbation, fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Facility operators were often charitable associations, such as the Order of St. John and the newly founded social welfare insurance companies.
Fort Calgary was a North-West Mounted Police outpost at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers in present-day Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after the outpost's first commander, the outpost was renamed Fort Calgary in June 1876.
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Parkdale is a mature, inner city neighbourhood in the city of Calgary, Alberta along the north bank of the Bow River between the communities of West Hillhurst and Point McKay. It is bounded on the south by the Bow River, 28 St NW to the east, Shaganappi Trail NW to the west and on the north by 16th Avenue. Parkdale is in close proximity to both the Foothills Medical Centre and the Alberta Children's Hospital constructed in 2006, as well as the University of Calgary. Memorial Drive provides access to downtown Calgary and to Highway 1 which leads to the Rocky Mountains. Parkdale was annexed to the City of Calgary in 1910 when Calgary began to experience a "major economic and building boom." The boom ended in 1913 and further development of the Parkdale Addition as it was called, was halted because of World War I. Following World War II in the 1950s the dominant housing type that characterized Parkdale, was the bungalow. By 2014 Parkdale, like other inner city communities in Calgary, was experiencing gradual gentrification with small cottage-style bungalows being replaced by spacious flat roofed, Prairie School Frank Lloyd Wright inspired infills attracting young families with children away from the long commute suburbs to inner city ease of access to downtown, transit and work.
Edworthy Park is a city park located in the Northwest section of Calgary along the south shore of the Bow River. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the length of the park. It was named after Thomas Edworthy, who immigrated to the Calgary area in 1883 from Devon, England.
The SDS Tuberculosis and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest diseases is a government run institute affiliated with Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute specializing in treating tuberculosis and other chest diseases. The sanatorium is housed on a sprawling campus near Hosur road in Bangalore.
Bridgeland-Riverside, formerly known as Bridgeland and Germantown, is a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is located northeast of Downtown Calgary. It is bounded to the south by the Bow River, to the east by Deerfoot Trail, to the west by Edmonton Trail and to the north by the community of Renfrew.
Pearce Estate Park is a city park located in Calgary, Alberta. The park occupies 21 hectares along the Bow River to the east of downtown Calgary. The park contains Pearce Estate Wetland, described as "constructed wetlands filled with native plants and animals". The land was donated to the city around 1929 by then prominent Calgarian William Pearce.
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