On April 30th 1886, Lauchlan Hamilton – a CPR land commissioner and surveyor – laid out the plans for the corner of Cambie and Hastings. This is the site of Victory Square today, and the subject of this week’s Vancouver Icons photo post.
1918: Land was left vacant at Cambie and Hastings Streets, after the old provincial law courts were demolished. Funds to develop a park there were donated by the Province newspaper, at that time right across the street from the new park, which would be named Victory Square (to commemorate victory in the First World War).
The iconic cenotaph was unveiled on Sunday, April 27th, 1924. Its inscriptions read: “Their name liveth for evermore” (facing Hastings), “1914-1918” (within a stone wreath), “Is it nothing to you” (facing Hamilton), and “All ye that pass by” (facing Pender).
Over the last century Victory Square has been the site of protests, reading of the riot act, Remembrance Day ceremonies, and community festivals.
Previous Vancouver Icons posts include: Digital Orca, The Crab Sculpture, Girl in Wetsuit, The Sun Tower, The Hotel Vancouver, The Gassy Jack Statue, The Marine Building, and The Angel of Victory. Should you have a suggestion for the Vancouver Icons series please feel free to leave a note in the comments. It should be a thing, statue, or place that is very visible to the public every day.
Last night the City of Surrey kicked off their two-day Party for the Planet, the largest Earth Day celebration in Western Canada. With a focus on free family fun, this major city event with an eco-friendly twist has already attracted thousands.
The Energy Dance Tent was particularly popular with live DJs spinning and dance groups showing off their moves.
The smell of mini donuts, popcorn, hot dogs, and more wafted through the open air last night with more food carts and options available today. You can also stop by the Surrey Food Bank tent and sign up to volunteer at the BC Summer Games which are taking place in Surrey this July.
The bike-powered main stage will focus on family entertainment (Bobs and Lolo, Backyardigans) but last night Raghav, The Boom Booms, and Down With Webster rocked it out.
Take transit right to the Surrey Central SkyTrain station or bus loop and there’s a free, secure bike valet available on-site.
Kids can explore the straw maze, learn about local recycling and environmental initiatives, play games, meet mascots, and dance their hearts out. The Party for the Planet is entirely free to attend. Things wrap up at 5:00pm today.
Miss604.com is once again a proud sponsor of Surrey’s Party for the Planet. All photos in this post are by John Bollwitt for Miss604.com. You can view all of John’s photos in his Flickr set.
Atlas Obscura Day is an annual event that happens around the globe as quirky, strange, and usual attractions open their doors and share their stories. While many of the activities are already sold out for the April 28th event, the celebration of exceptional and alluring spaces and places can provide ideas for future visits.
In Vancouver, our award-winning Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is hosting Obscura Day this year with Caves as Portals: Exploring the Grotto Beneath Ting Mountain. For the first time ever, they’re leading visitors into the wondrous caves at the garden. This event is sold out but here’s hoping that the garden will offer this special tour again.
If you’ll be in and around Seattle, there are two Obscura Day events:
Tour of Inscape building and Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore: Peek into Seattle’s past with a tour of the city’s 77,000-square-foot former Immigration and Naturalization Services building, plus a visit to the Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore for rare D.B. Cooper, UFO, and Bigfoot-related artifacts.
Cocktails & Bad Art at Seattle’s Official Bad Art Museum of Art: Visit Seattle’s Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA), located at Café Racer in Seattle.
In previous years, Vancouver’s Police Museum took part as well but if you look hard enough, you can find a few different types of tours happening year-round. Things like the Mountain View Cemetery, the Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition , and local history walks, to exploring Vancouver’s own Jimi Hendrix Shrine (that’s located in his grandmother’s old fried chicken restaurant).
This morning I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions for my Metro Vancouver Park Series, a collection of posts that has been put together by guest authors, reader suggestions, and through my personal experiences. @MaryAnnMcKenzie responded: “Hume Park in New West. Fields, playground & water park at top level + cool trails & secret places leading down to river.” Thanks to Mary Ann, Hume Park is this week’s feature.
Basics
New Westminster’s 31.72 acre Hume Park is split into two points of access, Upper Hume (via Kelly Street & Braid) and Lower Hume (via Columbia Street, just east of Holmes Street). Parking is available in a lot through the Lower Hume entrance and street parking can be found near the Upper Hume entrance.
Although I have been to Hume Park before for group picnics, I have never explored its forest trails and creek paths down toward the Brunette River. Needless to say, the Brunette-Fraser Greeway is now on my weekend “to do” list.
Features
Three tennis courts, water park, adventure playground, outdoor pool (seasonal), three baseball diamonds, lacrosse box, softball diamond, soccer field, trails and greeeways (connecting to the Brunette River), picnic shelter, picnic tables, and forested trails. There is also an off-leash area for dogs.
The pool is open from the last weekend in June to Labour Day, and washroom facilities are open from April to mid-October, from 8:30 am to dusk. The playground is currently getting an upgrade (see design plans here) and should be ready for romping this May. The existing playground equipment will remain in place, this will be an expansion.
History
New Westminster, our province’s original capital, is rich with history as is Hume Park which is named after Frederick J. Hume (1892-1967), a descendent of two of the original Royal Engineer families that settled in Sapperton.
The first trail from the Royal Engineer’s camp, surveyed and constructed as North Road in 1859, skirted the future park site. The trail was a military precaution, built to protect the capital city from potential American attack should the Fraser River freeze solid and the Americans launch an attack from the south. North Road provided a strategic access to Burrard Inlet to forestall such an eventuality. Fortunately, the feared American takeover of British Columbia never materialized, and the trail eventually proved more suitable for the survey and settlement of suburban lands and district lots.
The property was acquired during a land boom by the B.C. Distillery Company for potential factory or residential subdivision development. The land was soon determined surplus to the company’s needs, but the threat to their much-loved picnic site so alarmed local Sapperton residents they presented a petition to City Council in March, 1912.
Mayor Fred Hume has a vision for the park in the 1930s and didn’t let the Great Depression slow down its development. By 1937, things were underway.
Every aspect of the original plan was completed. The quality of craftsmanship and attention to detail by city relief workers exceeded everyone’s expectations. The playground and gardens carved out of the woods beside the Brunette River became a matter of civic pride.
You can read more about Hume Park’s history in this PDF document (quoted above) that is provided by the City of New Westminster.
1951 – VPL Accession Number: 47940. Photographer: Province Newspaper.
Mayor Fred Hume (centre) with Brig Megill, R.C.A.F Gordon along Georgia Street.
Fred Hume was Mayor of New Westminster from 1933 to 1942 and also the Mayor of Vancouver from 1951 to 1958 (while living in West Vancouver). He also owned the Vancouver Canucks in their WHL days and has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the “Builders” category.
Check out all 50 entries in my Metro Vancouver Park Series for fun, recreation, and local day trip ideas.
The Hibulb Cultural Center & Natural History Preserve, located a short drive north from Seattle, opened to the public in August of 2011. The 23,000 square foot facility serves as a museum and education centre for the natural heritage of the Snohomish, Snoqualmie and Skykomish peoples along with other allied tribes and bands. Through artifacts, photographs, videos and interactive displays, the centre tells the stories of these Tulalip Tribes.
“Keeping our cultural fires burning, that’s our motto,” said Mary Jane Topash, our group tour guide who first brought us inside a replica longhouse. A video played, detailing the significance of the longhouse and laid a foundation for what we were about to discover.
Inside the main gallery there is a focus on the cedar tree, salmon, and other aspects of this region that were vital to the first peoples’ survival – in fact these elements are still a large part of design, food, and culture.
The centre of the gallery is surrounded by posts which are meant to mimic a basket. Mary Jane said that the information on the outside of the basket is about the government (the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855 to modern day relations) while the displays within the inner circle explain how the tribe has sustained itself (including business ventures like the Tulalip Resort and Casino).
While visitors can normally do a self-guided tour, Mary Jane walked us through the centre, explaining the origins of the welcome figures (carved by James Madison and Joe Gobin), canoes, and the traditional writing we saw on signs and placards throughout. “We really wanted to incorporate our native language, Lushootseed.”
Mary Jane said that when she was growing up, you could learn Lushootseed for about two years in school. Nowadays, children can learn Lushootseed from kindergarden to graduation. This is a far cry from the darker decades of cultural suppression that came through boarding schools (or residential schools, as they were called in B.C.) which you can also learn about in the main gallery.
It’s interesting to look at maps and trade routes up and down the coast. I can spot various similarities in language, arts and customs between the Tulalip and first nations near the Vancouver area (eg. Cowichan, Tsawwassen, Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam) who are all Coast Salish peoples.
One of the most fascinating features is a wall of family trees, dating back to the 1780s. Members of Tulalip Tribes can actually type a code into an adjacent touch-screen computer and locate their relatives. Mary Jane did a quick demonstration for us and could immediately point out family members from generations ago. This system is the result of over 3 years of research.
A temporary exhibit space that is currently hosting “Warriors We Remember“, a tribute to Tulalip war veterans, who served on behalf of the United States since the first World War. A 45-minute video loops in the centre of the room and I caught a quote that resonated: “Warriors are honoured in our society.”
Complete with classrooms and a 50-acre natural history preserve, Hibulb is an impressive tribute and education centre not only for the Tulalip Tribe, but for anyone who would like to visit. It hosts craft days, storytelling, a lecture series, and much more. You can find out about their programs and events in their online calendar.
The Hibulb Cultural Centre & Natural History Preserve is located just a few minutes away from the Tulalip Resort and Casino, which is exit 200 off the I-5 (about 3 hour south of Vancouver). It’s open until 5:00pm every day, but closed on Mondays.
If you get the chance, closer to home, check out the Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Center in Whistler as well.
