"The Most Beautiful Park in the World"
- Lord Stanley

Stanley Park Dedicated 115 Years Ago This Week - October 29th, 1889

This memorial statue of Lord Stanley was erected to honour the dedication of Stanley Park in 1960.


The school children of Vancouver welcome a governor general with song. The " C.P.R. Park", one half block of green lawn on the north west corner of Granville and Georgia streets, opposite the old Hotel Vancouver, was the scene of many pioneer festive ceremonies, band concerts and tennis games. No photograph of the school children's welcome to Lord and Lady Stanley exists but this is a similar welcome accorded Lord Aberdeen, Governor General, and Lady Aberdeen a year or more later.

After being logged three times starting in the mid to late 19th Century, Vancouver's first City Council, headed up by Alderman Sir William Van Horne, asked the Dominion (Federal) Government, who own the 1000 acre peninsula and were poised to use it for military purposes, if they could lease the property for park purposes. This was agreed to and after many letters back and forth between the two levels of government, it was decided, confidentially, that Vancouver's first park would be named for the Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley.

Though Vancouver Mayor David Oppenheimer presided at the opening of the park on September 28th, 1888, the official dedication took place over a year later on October 29th, 1889 when Lord Stanley and his wife were able to make the transcontinental journey for the big event.

It was a beautiful clear and crisp day with a cloudless sky. One of the park's only grassy areas was chosen for the opening event, located at the extreme north end of what is now Pipeline Road overlooking the narrows to the north shore. A temporary platform was erected there not far from the grave of Supple Jack and the chosen name for the park was kept a highly guarded secret. A flag staff was also erected at the site with the intent of running up the Union Jack as soon as the naming was revealed.

A procession of horse drawn carriages with all dignitaries aboard left Carrall and Powell Streets precisely at 11 am and made their way via Cordova, Granville and then Georgia Streets headed up by the City Band. The park was entered via a plank bridge spanning the peninsula and the downtown, with the party then taking the newly cut road around Brockton Point toward the grassy location.

Following speeches by the special guests, Lord Stanley took the stage, and raising his arms high into the air proclaimed,

Following the ceremony a series of picnics were held throughout Vancouver's first park with all citizens invited to attend. Later that evening Mayor and Mrs. Oppenheimer hosted the largest ball ever held in the city at the Opera House with the fire department providing music.

This was an auspicious occasion for the fledgling "Park Committee", later to be known as the Park Board, as Lord Stanley handed the care and custody of this 1000 acres over to them directly. Vancouver's first park was to be followed by over 200 more in the course of a century - a history rich in the hearts and minds of those who would make Vancouver there home.

Note: When the Vancouver Park Board celebrated its Centennial in 1988, a small ceremony was again held on the grassy hillock where Lord Stanley once proclaimed our great park's beginning. A bronze plaque marks the spot just above the seawall before Park Drive switchbacks up to Prospect Point.

• Top