This 1905 photograph by North Vancouver photographer G.G. Nye shows a “clearing bee” of community volunteers clearing land at 7th and Lonsdale to create Victoria Park.
The two men on top of the large stump are identified as the Diplock brothers.
The land for the park was donated in 1905 to the City of North Vancouver by Mr. A. St. George Hamersley, Isabella Maud Hamersley, and the North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company. Local residents began the task of clearing the land, which was later completed by a private contractor.
By 1910 it was laid out as a picturesque promenade park with formal paths lined with traditional European tree species, including black locusts, horse chestnuts, birch, copper beeches, English hawthorns and big leaf maples.
Victoria Park is the first component of a system of boulevards and parks known as North Vancouver’s “Green Necklace” a grouping of parks, running from Grand Boulevard to Moody Park, that includes Victoria Park, Mahon Park, and Ottawa Gardens. It was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 1995.
For more information about the history of the North Shore and to learn about the new Museum of North Vancouver opening in late-2020, visit nvma.ca and sign up for the museum’s e-newsletter at bit.ly/35MWr83.
Currently, the Archives of North Vancouver at 3203 Institute Rd. in Lynn Valley is open by appointment only. Contact: [email protected].
