Assiniboine Park
Assiniboine Park
A Park for all Seasons
Produced for Prairie Public Television ©2003
Written and Produced By George Siamandas
NAR: It’s another glorious Sunday at Assiniboine Park. Teeming with Winnipeggers eager to enjoy this gift of another beautiful summer day. Whether it’s a game of Frisbee, or a quiet stroll, there’s a wealth of year round recreational opportunities at the park. Walks through tree-lined paths, baseball, volleyball or cricket. Walks through the English Gardens or the Leo Mol sculpture gardens. Or a free concert at the Lyric Stage. Assiniboine Park is truly a park for all seasons.
HISTORY OF ASSINIBOINE PARK
NAR: For almost 100 years Winnipeggers have been coming to enjoy the legacy of the vision of a few good men. Who at the turn of the century recognized the need for generous green spaces. Their guiding principle was that “Well kept parks are without question, refining and civilising factors.” And so an ambitious plan to create a large suburban park. The first parcel of land for the creation of Assiniboine Park was purchased in 1903. But the decision was controversial. City aldermen were derided for spending $39,303 for 290 acres of cow pastures, out in the sticks to boot.
CATHERINE MACDONALD, WINNIPEG HISTORIAN
Right from the start when they began in 1893 they wanted to provide the city with what they called an outside or large suburban park. It was to be located outside the city because you could provide that large tract of land. Also they wanted to locate it on one of the rivers.
In 1904 they put down their money and began to develop it as their big suburban park and they wanted the best. The best person in that day would have been Frederick Law Olmstead who was the designer of Central Park in New York, the best in North American park design. And they actually contacted the Olmstead firm in Brookline Mass, and they recommended one of their former employees, Frederick Todd who had come to Montreal to implement Olmstead’s plan for Mount Royal. So he came to Winnipeg in 1904 and laid out a design for Assiniboine Park.
The Parks Board had bad experiences with what they called their head gardener Mr England. England had been running his own greenhouse operation, selling city-grown plants on the black market. He left under quite a bit of a cloud.
NAR: And to find the best man Winnipeg Mayor James Ashdown travelled to Toronto and hired George Champion.
CATHERINE MACDONALD
And so out he came to Winnipeg and stepped off the train and must have wondered at how flat the landscape was. It was Champion who had to implement the design that Frederick Todd had designed for Assiniboine Park. He really grasped this idea that the park was a place for passive entertainment and quiet respite, and he made sure that nothing impinged on that quality during his quite long tenure from 1907-1935.
Assiniboine Park was meant by Todd and Champion to be a place of quiet reflection.
It was to be in total contrast to Elm Park and River Park, which had amusement ride and noise and laughter. Assiniboine Park was a place where you could walk, sit and reflect. Where your kids could play. Where you could see beautiful scenery gardens watch the ducks on the duck pond. It was all to be quite serene. The feeling that you get in a place like this can’t be had anywhere else. It’s a feast for the senses you know.
NAR: Todd’s plan followed the prevailing design principles of the English Landscape Style as popularized by Frederick Law Olmstead who designed America’s finest parks. The English landscape style as developed in England and adopted and refined by Olmstead called for open meadows and lawns, backed by border plantings of native shrubs, and elaborate geometrical flower gardens. All circulation systems would be in curvilinear shapes in contrast to the grid of the city’s streets.
Starting in 1907 with what had been an old dairy farm, the Monroe Pure Milk Dairy Company, Champion saw the development of a pavilion, a duck pond, a large children’s meadow, and a formal garden area. From the outset all wiring was to be installed underground. And Victoria Day 1909, finally saw the official opening of Assiniboine Park.
CONSERVATORY
NAR: The Conservatory or Palm House as it was originally called was built in 1914 by Lord and Burnham of Toronto. It became an immediate hit with the public. People flocked to see the annual chrysanthemum show considered the finest in Canada. The conservatory attracts over 400,000 visitors a year from around the world. A series of flower shows complement the permanent conservatory collection. During the middle of winter while the snow and winds rage outside, the conservatory remains a wonderful lush retreat.
LINDA GLOWACKI, ASSINIBOINE PARK CONSERVATORY
The Conservatory at the time was a gorgeous structure of steel and glass Victoria style with all the softness of the curves. It must have just glowed in the sunlight, quite beautiful, and the palm house was the central structure to that. Conservatories are a cornerstone for botanical gardens throughout the world. About a hundred years ago there was a big push to build conservatories. People understood the need especially in cold climates to have this kind of foliage around people on a cold winter’s day.
Our Conservatory consistently gets close to 400,000 people through it a year. There’s actually a few trees here that we know for a fact particularly a Norfolk Island pine that was one of the original plantings. I’ve actually had people come to the front counter and say I’ve been coming here since the 40s and 50s. I had a fashion show here when I was young. I came here to sing. We have many wonderful stories, family stories. We are one of the best multi generational facilities in Winnipeg. And if you are here on the weekend you see everything from great grand children to grandmothers and they all have their own stories.
We have a lot of people that come here for respite, from the hustle and bustle of the everyday world. Solace is another thing. We have a lot of people that are grieving that come here to find a bit of respite from that. It’s the sort of place that gives you a little bit of peace, and in today’s world that’s sort of a rarity.
KIM CHIPMAN, FRIENDS OF THE CONSERVATORY
The Friends of the Conservatory started in 1988 by a group of people that were horticulturists, some professionally others passionately, and it has just taken off hugely. We’ve grown from a group of 10 interested people to over 800 members. And we raise a terrific amount of money that goes towards the betterment of the conservatory. The Friends have a vision for bringing it all back to the original look with all glass and no brick; very high ceilings and architecturally very beautiful and very Victorian.
Our volunteers are so passionate about what we do and what we show the public.
They donate this time willingly and they love it. There is nothing like communing with nature in your volunteer spare time to really rejuvenate the flesh and the spirit.
When people come to visit they can see what we’ve done with volunteers. We now have 7 volunteer gardens. It started of with the herb garden, we now have the Victorian Order of Nursing cutting garden, the Transplant Program, the Organ Donor garden, the day lily garden and all of these have came at no expense.
People donate plants they donate time. It’s because people love the building, love the experience here and it’s so refreshing and important to them to really commune with nature in that way. The Friends has been a terrific outlet for people to give something back to this passion of theirs to Assiniboine Park.
DISCOVERING THE JOYS OF ASSINIBOINE PARK
TERRY MACLEOD, WINNIPEG RADIO PERSONALITY
I moved here about 10 years ago from Toronto and had never been to the park ever before, and no one mentioned the park to me before. They mentioned the rivers, they mentioned the Forks and I think the first time we came when the kids were really small we came to the kite festival.
And then we came to discover the park in a number of different ways depending on what season it was. When the kids were really little and they were learning to skate, we would come in the winter to the duck pond. We would come when they used to have the Lights of the Wild, in the Zoo in the deepest, darkest part of the winter around Xmas time when it was really cold and the colder the better. We would come up to the Zoo and they would have these light displays in the park. We come to the teddy bears picnic every spring and sit around on this broad expanse of grass and marvel at the fabulous talent.
The thing that I find remarkable about the park it has this combination of different kinds of places. You can find these gigantic vistas like the road coming up to the Pavilion where you get this long stretch of beautifully symmetrical trees, and you can look way down this great corridor of trees. And then are these huge open patches of grass where nothing is growing but in the distance there are the trees.
My favourite new place is the English garden and I was there last night wandering through in this intoxicating smell and this unbelievable collection of flowers. If you ever want to know what grows in Winnipeg in the summer all you have to do is go to that garden. Everything is in bloom right now and there are these wonderful reflecting pools and lily pads; these towering garden obelisks, gorgeous things.
THE DUCK POND
NAR: Located opposite the entry to the English Gardens, the Duck Pond offers the chance to watch the graceful swans and other ducks that inhabit the pond in summer. In the early years it was known as Swan Lake. In winter the pond is transformed into a skating rink and toboggan slide area. Skaters do their figures under a canopy of lights and soft music
ASSINIBOINE PARK FOOTBRIDGE
NAR: The first footbridge was built by real estate men trying to market housing opposite the park in St James. For the next 20 years the city paid $1000 per year to construct and then take down a wooden footbridge. This extravagance lasted until 1932 when a new concrete bridge was built with winter works money.
ASSINIBOINE PARK ZOO
NAR: Well over a million visitors annually enjoy the collection of over 1250 mammal, bird and reptile specimens. It’s the second largest zoo in Canada after Toronto. The climate controlled Tropical House provides the largest, indoor-outdoor collection of birds in any zoo.
DOUG ROSS, DIRECTOR ASSINIBOINE PARK ZOO
The Assiniboine Park Zoo started as one of the key components for Assiniboine Park. It’s quite interesting as the first plan for Assiniboine Park did not include a zoo. And what happened as first happens with a lot of zoos in municipal areas, someone thought it’s a good idea. So they actually donated some animals to the zoo and these animals were your standard North American animals: a few bison and some wolves, just those kind of animals and that was the start. And it’s interesting too that the zoo stayed as a drive through where people could actually drive their cars through past the pens, look at the elk or the bison.
We were one of the first zoos to come up with the bar-less cages. So for our bears we never did have the standard barred cages. We went from the bear pit right to the modern enclosures.
The grizzlies that we have here Hilda and Waldo are a couple of grizzlies that came from Alberta. They were orphaned. They are actually brother and sister. In our bear collection we have polar bears which are a key part of our zoo now because of our links with northern Manitoba – the polar bear capital of Canada which is Churchill. We also will always have black bears because black bears are the most common indigenous bear in Manitoba and they are all around Winnipeg and into the countryside.
KERRY RENAUD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF MANITOBA
Education and conservation are probably two of the biggest and most important things zoos are doing in society today. In addition zoo classroom programs run through-out the school years where you have classrooms from various schools coming into the zoo and experiencing an educational classroom experience.
THE ENGLISH GARDENS
STEFAN FEDIUK, SUPERVISOR ASSINIBOINE PARK DISPLAY GARDENS
The cedars that you see in the front and a number of the tall poplars in the back are from George Champion’s plan. This particular garden is our grass garden it’s one of the most recent introductions to the English Gardens.
This garden as I look at it is about 30 gardens in itself, we’ve got shade gardens, we’ve got a woodland garden, We’ve got a rose garden. There used to be 800 roses, tea roses in that garden.
The lilies you see behind me and the commemorative plaque have been donated by our sister city in Japan. Every year they replenish the lilies for us. It’s one of the things everybody takes a look at.
On the prairies this garden is probably surpassed by none. It’s the only one. There have been comments by people who have come up especially from the American side of the border, that there is nothing like this. People come in and we get somewhere in the neighbourhood of 200,000 visitors a year to this garden alone.
To be able to do this kind of job is fantastic. To work in a garden like this is one in a million. I would say the English Garden at Assiniboine Park is one of the forgotten jewels of the city.
BOY WITH THE BOOT
NAR: During the summer season the English Gardens and Formal Gardens draw thousands of visitors. The boy with the boot graces the entry to the English Gardens. The statue has attracted a lot of attention including the interest of pranksters who have stolen the boot on several occasions.
GUNTHER SHOCH, RETIRED DIRECTOR PLANING AND DEVELOPMENT PARKS DEPT
An interesting story is the boy with the boot. It’s the entrance to the English Gardens. It was placed here in 1953. Originally it was located in front of city Hall. But they found out during the 1960s when tourists came to Winnipeg that the same figure, the same sculpture exists in nine other North American Cities. And no one really knows where it came from. Only that it was probably constructed in an Italian foundry in the mid 1800s.
FORMAL GARDENS
STEFAN FEDIUK
We’re in the formal gardens now. This particular garden was originally designed and installed in the early 1900s – 1909 is when it was officially opened. And it was designed in the traditional French formal style with a double axis a series of circle beds running in each of the corners of the axis and a series of long rectangular beds. The elms that you see around us right now are the original plantings dating back to 1909.
THE ASSINIBOINE PARK PAVILION
NAR: Whether a family group, a picnic, or a solitary walk throughout the many landscaped paths, the park remains a joyful retreat from the city’s hustle and bustle. And the focal point has always been the Pavilion.
The first major building was the Pavilion designed by architect John Atchison built in 1908 for $19,000. It included a 90-foot tower, which contained a 16,000-gal water tank for watering the park’s grounds.
The Pavilion soon became a centre for Winnipeg social life offering a dance and banquet hall, and, catering facilities. For 20 years it hosted a variety of events. A tragic fire in 1929 destroyed the pavilion leaving only a safe. A new one was built in 1930. Yet its potential was never fully realized.
CATHERINE MACDONALD
The 1931 pavilion never reached its potential because the parks board never had enough money to develop it.
HARTLEY RICHARDSON, PARTNERS IN THE PARK
This wonderful building had sat empty and abandoned and we felt in order to make it a destination that we would like to have a wonderful eating experience. So the Tavern in the Park idea came as part of trying to make it an all round experience for people.
The great joy is to see the pleasure it has brought to so many people in so many ways that have such a wonderful connection to this building. It spans generations and it spans all sorts of emotional ties.
DONNA HICKS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PARTNERS IN THE PARK
In 1930 the Pavilion was rebuilt after a tremendous fire. It sort of functioned for many years; it had a little banquet facility. Over the years it became very tired – just an old building. Then a group of really concerned citizens saw the potential, walked through the building loved what they saw and decided they would do a major fundraising in order to rehabilitate the building. Tavern in the Park happens to be one of the top-rated restaurants in Winnipeg. The food is fabulous. We also do a large number of private functions here – lots of weddings because the venue here is so perfect.
And then when we come to the second and third floors we have on the second floor Walter Phillip’s work. We have one of the largest collections in Canada. They are beautiful watercolours – many of them done here and in Kenora. And then on the other side of that floor we have Clarence Telenius. His work is just incredible a lot of animals – mother and baby type of animal pictures. They are quite spectacular. When you come to the third floor we have Ivan Eyers work – very modern, exciting, lots of controversy when you look at his work and try to understand what it’s all about. So three very, very different artists.
I think one of the things I like the best is to hear from someone that hasn’t been here in 20 years, that I used to come and have a hot dog and now look at this space. It’s so beautiful, so gorgeous. We have three different entities here. One of course is the art gallery, which is an art museum. Second we have the Leo Mol Sculpture Gardens. And then the third entity is the Lyric Theatre, which is the outdoor stage. So really what we are doing here is providing free for all to enjoy – fine art, fine sculpture, and fine theatre.
LEO MOL SCULPTURE GARDENS
NAR: The Leo Mol sculpture gardens are an example of a new attraction added to the park in the 1990s. Leo Mol is a renowned Winnipeg sculptor whose works are in collections throughout the world.
HARTLEY RICHARDSON, PARTNERS IN THE PARK
The story of how the Leo Mol garden came to be is an interesting one. He had offered his entire collection of works to the city and then he had perceived that they had turned him down and he couldn’t understand how this gift could be misinterpreted or misunderstood.
We moved quite quickly and with the full co-operation of the mayor and the city, we chose an area that was adjacent to the English Gardens, an area of the park that wasn’t being utilised. And we went about designing this wonderful sculpture garden with Leo’s help and his attention to detail.
We developed both the gallery and the experience of the sculptures outside. His love is his art. His greatest joy has been to share with us his life’s passion.
HEATHER CRAM, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
The concept was to give the sculptures a wonderful place to live. And the building behind me is the building that was designed to house all his smaller pieces in his collection. And the garden itself was designed around all of his larger pieces.
I’ve heard other people talk about coming here to relax and to have some contemplative time. It seems almost like there is a large therapeutic value in this garden, which really makes me very, very happy because that’s why I do this.
The pool very much contributes to the formality of the site. It provides a real focal point for the whole site. We wanted something that we could use to set off a special piece. The idea was that the sculpture really needed water around it and Winnipeg really needed a wonderful fountain and pool.
The garden at night is sort of like a fantasyland. At night you have the aromas of the plants and this very low lighting, and that really I think adds to the ambience of the space. In winter the snow kind of blankets everything. It kind of lays upon each of the sculptures like a little blanket.
LYRIC STAGE
NAR: Music and entertainment now sound out from the Lyric Stage. Gail Asper’s family spearheaded this splendid outdoor stage after a suggestion by Hartley Richardson.
GAIL ASPER, PARTNERS IN THE PARK
One amazing day Hartley Richardson called to speak with my father and me. So Hartley said: I want to come to talk to you about a project I have in mind. Anyway Hartley showed up and unveiled this amazing plan to refurbish the Pavilion and restore it into a beautiful art gallery. And also this other idea that just resonated so perfectly with my father – to build an outdoor Theatre that would perform free shows for the public. And within a few hours my dad had bought into the idea. I have never seen him take to an idea so rapidly and so whole-heartedly.
HARTLEY RICHARDSON
Originally there was a band-shell in the early 1920 and 30s and my grandparents would tell me about coming out in their best bib and tucker on a Sunday with their parasols to watch and listen to the orchestras.
GAIL ASPER
It’s music it’s dance it’s cultural expressions. We have Ukrainian dance, Scottish dancers, lots of jazz, jazz is very popular.
HARTLEY RICHARDSON
It’s working out beyond our expectations. We now do over 50 free concerts. This summer we have Ballet in the Park, we have the Winnipeg Symphony, and we have children’s entertainers. It has become a special place.
PLANNING THE FUTURE OF ASSINIBOINE PARK
GAIL ASPER
No one comes to live in a city because you’ve got great paved roads or a really good sewer system. Nobody moves to a city for that reason. The greatest things in this world are cultural cities driven by their architecture, their opera house, their physical and cultural assets. But that takes money and that takes investment. But boy, does it pay off.
The issue with us has been how do you get things done. Who is responsible for getting things done? For forty-two years since I have been living here we have watched how things didn’t get done here. How the conservatory deteriorated, how this building the pavilion was empty, nothing happened.
Partners in the Park are really the organization that looks after the three new developments: the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, the Pavilion Gallery and the Lyric. I think its important that communities realise that individuals can make a difference. We shouldn’t just be sitting back all the time and expecting our governments to do things.
We have to be the leaders. We have to start planting the oak trees of tomorrow. The people will say my god could you imagine if someone didn’t have the foresight to do Assiniboine Park. We have a legacy from Assiniboine Park. And we have to make sure we do not allow this legacy to be ignored and to be underdeveloped.
So what I would love is for all governments and all municipalities to recognize that if you can’t do something legitimately don’t stand in the way. Don’t be a roadblock when someone else comes to you with a great idea. Be grateful, facilitate, open the doors and give them the pat on the back. At the very least say, go for it, we are behind you in whatever we can do to support you.
HARTLEY RICHARDSON
It’s about what we leave for the generation. And the generations beyond. And this is timeless. This setting is timeless; the Park has been reborn.
Assiniboine Park:
A Park for all Seasons
© Prairie Public Television 2003
Producer Writer Narrator
George Siamandas
Videography
Lee Westad
George Siamandas
Executive producer
Bob Dambach
Editing
Bob Dambach
Lee Westad
Archival Stills
Manitoba Provincial Archives
City of Winnipeg
Contemporary stills
George Siamandas
http://www.siamandas.com
Financial Support
The Winnipeg Foundation
The Members of Prairie Public Television
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