Victoria Park | |
---|---|
Type | Urban park |
Location | Kitchener, Ontario |
Coordinates | 43°26′49″N80°29′53″W / 43.447°N 80.498°W |
Area | 11 hectares (27 acres) |
Created | 1896 |
Victoria Park is the oldest park in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, situated downtown. It is the site of numerous events and festivities.
A Berlin (Kitchener) map from 1879 has a Town Park, located between Mill Street and Highland Road where Highland Courts and Woodside Parks stand today. It sits on the original Joseph E. Schneider homestead; the municipal government had purchased some acres from the family in 1895 and drained the swamp on the land. The 27-acre (11 ha) purchase was initially opposed by some parties for being too far outside of town. [1] The park opened on 27 August 1896; the lake, bridges and three islands were in place at that time. [2]
The Park was named after Queen Victoria ahead of her diamond jubilee on the British throne. [3] The human-made lake is fed by Schneider Creek, surrounds three small islands, and is crossed by multiple bridges. The park also contains the Victoria Park pavilion, the Victoria Park Gallery and Archives, a bandstand, and a historic boathouse, a pub and music venue. A pavilion was first introduced to the park in 1902 as a response to complaints that there was nowhere to seek shelter when it started to rain. [4] Designed by Charles Knechtel, the structure was set on fire in 1916 and deemed too damaged to recover. A second pavilion, borrowing heavily from Knechtel's original design, was built in 1924. [4] Situated on the same spot as the original, the front of the pavilion faces the water, whereas the original faced the park's main island. [5] : 180–181
The Gaukel street entrance features a clock tower which was once atop the old Kitchener City Hall (from 1924 and now site of Market Square Shopping Centre), and before that, the town's fire hall. It was moved to the park entrance and complemented with a fountain and a sculpture of luggage, by local artist Ernest Daetwyler, symbolizing the various waves of immigration that have contributed the city's history. [6]
A cast-bronze statue of Queen Victoria by Cavaliere Raffaele Zaccaquini and a cannon are situated in the park. The statue was unveiled in May 1911, on Victoria Day on the ten year anniversary of her death. The Princess of Wales Chapter of the IODE raised the $6,000 needed for the monument. [3]
In 1897 a large bronze bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I, made by Reinhold Begas and shipped from Germany, was installed at in the park to honour the region's prominent German-Canadian population. [7] It was removed and thrown into the lake by vandals in August 1914 at the beginning of the First World War. [8] The bust was recovered from the lake and moved to the nearby Concordia club, but it was stolen again February 15, 1916, marched through the streets by a mob, made up largely of soldiers from the 118th Battalion, and has never been seen again. [7] The 118th Battalion is rumoured to have melted down the bust to make napkin rings given to its members. [9] A monument with a plaque outlining the story of the original bust was erected in the park in 1996. [10] [11]
In the fall of 2011, $10.1-million of restoration work on the park's lake was started, and in all 85,000 tonnes of sediment were removed from the lake bottom. Thousands of concrete and stone blocks were placed along the 2.2 kilometres of shoreline as a retaining wall to prevent erosion. While the overall area of the lake was slightly reduced, the waterway near the mouth of Schneider's creek at the north end of the park was widened to create a "fore bay" which slows the flow of water and allows sediment to settle in one place for easy removal. [12]
A major renovation was completed on the Boathouse in 2014. The building had originally been used to store canoes in summer and as a changing room for skaters, but also included a tea house for some years. It was closed between September 2013 and January 2015, and re-opened as a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, operated by Mark Forwell, The business closed down in October 2019; the owner was leasing the building from the City of Kitchener and exercised an exit option in the lease. [13]
The city announced in late 2019 that its budget includes $3 million for Victoria Park, to be used over 2021–2023 to achieve the results discussed in the master plan. While no single new element will be significant, the funds will allow for a renewal of the existing facilities including the trees. [14]
Victoria Park is home to Victoria Parkrun, Kitchener, a free 5K held every Saturday morning. [15]
As of 2022, various anti-colonialism interests have raised objections to the park continuing to carry the effigy and name of Queen Victoria; the statue has been vandalized, often with red paint; and formal requests for a rename have been submitted, with the suggestion of Willow River Park as one with Aboriginal roots. [16]
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Waterloo is situated about 94 km (58 mi) west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the city of Kitchener to Waterloo, the two together are often referred to as "Kitchener–Waterloo", "K-W", or "The Twin Cities".
Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about 100 km (62 mi) west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a 1916 referendum changed its name. The city covers an area of 136.86 km2, and had a population of 256,885 at the time of the 2021 Canadian census.
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. Kitchener, the largest city, is the seat of government.
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Queen's Park is an urban park in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, it was named in honour of Queen Victoria. The park is the site of the Ontario Legislative Building, which houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The phrase "Queen's Park" is regularly used as a metonym for the Government of Ontario or the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The city of Berlin, Ontario, changed its name to Kitchener by referendum in May and June 1916. Named in 1833 after the capital of Prussia and later the German Empire, the name Berlin became unsavoury for residents after Britain and Canada's entry into the First World War.
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Region of Waterloo International Airport or Kitchener/Waterloo Airport is an international airport serving the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Woolwich, Ontario, Canada, west of Toronto. It has year round daily flights to Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Calgary, Orlando, Halifax, Fort Lauderdale and Kelowna through Flair Airlines and WestJet. It also has seasonal flights to Cancun through Sunwing Airlines and Flair Airlines. In 2022, the airport ranked seventh-busiest in Canada by total aircraft movements and twentieth-busiest by passenger traffic.
The 118th Battalion, CEF was a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. In the early months of the war, Canadians rushed to enlist for various reasons - patriotism, adventure, and to oppose German hostility. Battalions were quickly filled and local communities were proud of their enlisted men. But as the war progressed Canadian recruitment numbers declined. By 1916, all Canadian battalions, not just the local 118th and 111th, were faced with enlistment challenges. Overseas casualties increased and Canadians began to realize the war would not end soon. As the war progressed and Waterloo County came under more scrutiny, Waterloo North Member of Parliament William Weichel proposed to Sir Sam Hughes, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, that Waterloo County could raise two overseas battalions. Colonel A.J. Oliver, commander of the 34th Battalion in nearby Guelph, was one of the few who opposed this idea, realizing that it would be a very difficult undertaking. Hughes agreed and in December 1915 the creation of two infantry battalions was authorized - one based in Berlin and one in Galt.
Birkenhead Park is a major public park located in the centre of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847. It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civic park in the world. The park was designated a conservation area in 1977 and declared a Grade I listed landscape by English Heritage in 1995. In 2023 the park was placed on the UK government's "tentative list" of applications for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The park influenced the design of Central Park in New York and Sefton Park in Liverpool.
Endcliffe Park is a large park in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The park was opened in 1887 to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. When travelling West from the city centre it is the first in a series of parks and green spaces, known collectively as the Porter Valley Parks, all of which lie along the course of the Porter Brook. The next park in the sequence is Bingham Park, separated from Endcliffe Park by Rustlings Road. In 1924 Patrick Abercrombie said of the parks, "The Porter Brook Parkway, consisting as it does of a string of contiguous open spaces, is the finest example to be found in this country of a radial park strip, an elongated open space, leading from a built-up part of the city direct into the country, the land occupied being a river valley and so for the greater part unsuitable for building."
The Iron Horse Trail is a multi-use urban rail trail which connects the cities of Waterloo and Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Erb Street West in the north near Uptown Waterloo, to Ottawa Street South in Kitchener to the south. It covers a distance of 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi). The trail was opened on 5 October 1997 on abandoned Canadian Pacific Railway right of way sections, including portions of the right-of-way of the now-defunct Grand River Railway. The two cities combined resources to purchase the property. It is a part of the Trans Canada Trail.
Albert Park is an open access, free public park, located in Middlesbrough, in the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England.
Hanley Park is an urban park in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Officially opened on 20 June 1897, it occupies about 63 acres (25 ha) of land. The park was developed by the town of Hanley over a period of five years and cost approximately £70,000. It has been described as a good example of a late Victorian municipal park, and is listed Grade II* in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens.
The Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower was built in 1926 in Kitchener to commemorate the arrival of the Pennsylvania Dutch to Southwestern Ontario. It was conceived by William Henry Breithaupt, who wanted to heal wounds of nationalism fomented in the city during World War I. This led to increasing anti-German sentiment and an eventual change in the name of the city from Berlin to Kitchener.
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John Motz was a Canadian politician, German-language newspaper proprietor, sheriff and tailor. Born near Mühlhausen in the Province of Saxony, Prussia, he immigrated to Berlin, Canada West in 1848. In 1859, he and fellow immigrant Friedrich Rittinger founded the Berliner Journal, a German-language newspaper based in Berlin. Motz served as its editor for the next forty years before retiring in 1899, becoming the honorary sheriff of Waterloo County, a position he held until his death in 1911.
Operator ending lease of restaurant at Victoria Park.