Stanley Park Celebrates Its 120th Birthday!

Background

• Introduction
• Background
• Exhibition
• Panels
• Donors

Stanley Park was officially opened with much fanfare by Mayor David Oppenheimer on a beautiful fall day in September 1888. A procession formed on Powell Street that included a horse-drawn wagon, carriages carrying local dignitaries, vehicles of all descriptions and led by the City's Marching Band. The cortege proceeded past the Hotel Vancouver, down Georgia Street and into the park past Brockton Point to a grassy knoll near the water's edge. Here is how the setting for the event was described in the paper, the Daily News-Advertiser on September 28th: 

"It would be hard to imagine a lovelier weather than that of yesterday. A cloudless sky, brilliant sunshine and a fresh breeze from the Gulf combined to make the day one of the most delightful experienced in this season, the best in some respects of British Columbia's magnificent climate. The scene was one that would have delight the soul of an artist, the mighty peaks of the Coast Range, across the Inlet, bathed in warm, purple light, standing like mighty sentinels guarding the young Empire City, the restless surface of the Inlet dotted here and there with pleasure craft of all descriptions . . . the Park itself with its giants of the forest and its lovely glades all combined to make a picture never to be forgotten by the spectators."

One hundred and twenty years later, Stanley Park has garnered international renown as one of the great urban parks of the world. And so it was that, two years ago the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Museum joined in partnership to create a unique project that would celebrate the 120th birthday of Vancouver's largest and oldest park. This important milestone was seen as an opportunity to explore the remarkable history of this important national treasure in a way that would increase the public's understanding of how natural forces and human intervention have shaped the park as we know it today. The result is an exciting and interactive museum exhibition and, as a pendant to the exhibition, an installation of a series of interpretive panels in the park.

The devastating windstorm of December 2006 caused extensive damage to Stanley Park. The storm and subsequent restoration of the park have, as history can attest, resulted in significant changes to the park and, accordingly, those changes are reflected in the content of both the exhibition and the interpretive panels.