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The Jewel in the Green Necklace

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Did you know that every province in Canada has at least one Victoria Park? And there are Victoria Parks throughout the world. North Vancouver’s Victoria Park is an oasis of lawns, shrubs and trees bordered by high-rises, where houses once stood with forests beyond that.

1926 Aerial view of Victoria Park, the centre of the image shows the bandstand in Victoria Park West   Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 15881

Lonsdale Avenue bisects this urban greenspace while Keith Road splits into East and West, circling the park and carrying the busy flow of city traffic. The divided park can feel like two islands. The east park is the site of the North Vancouver Cenotaph and the west park is home to a granite horse trough and equestrian sculpture, a reminder of the park’s beginnings in the early 19th century when horse power was indeed horse power and when Victoria Park was created as the centrepiece of Edward Mahon’s vision – the Green Necklace. The same Edward Mahon who has a park and an avenue named after him.  

The Green Necklace encircles the City of North Vancouver. It is an interconnecting parkland that includes Grand Boulevard, Keith Road, Ottawa Gardens and Mahon Park, providing residents and visitors with 7.5 kilometres of pleasant, scenic pathways around an urban greenway. At the heart of the Green Necklace is Victoria Park, a verdant 3.9 acres of public space created as the first and central component of the necklace and “is a distinct and recognisable feature that divides Lower Lonsdale from Central Lonsdale.” 1

The creator of the necklace was Anglo-Irish settler, founding father of the City of North Vancouver and real estate developer, Edward Mahon. Edward’s vision is noted by C.N.V. as being, “influenced by the Garden City and City beautiful planning movements of the late 1800s, which was a response to the deteriorating conditions of industrial cities in Europe”. Edward is quoted as saying: “Completion of this great public way, with the supporting parks and gardens, will perpetuate health areas and pleasure grounds within a short distance of every resident of the present city of North Vancouver, and our municipality will have the distinction of possessing the most spacious boulevard contained within the limits of any city in the world - a great artificial lung, encompassing the central town, breathing, pressing, forcing into its health and vitality…” 2 . Edward was also aware of fire danger and saw that the necklace could act as a firebreak because once cleared of the dense forest, a fire would be less likely to jump the boulevard parks.

Worldwide 19th century urbanization led to forests being displaced by development and urban parks eventually appeared in their place. Edward’s vision was to plan for urban parkland ahead of further building development.

In 1905, local volunteers began clearing the land of trees to make way for the park. Four years after tree clearing began, Victoria Park came into being, with May Day celebrations including a Maypole. The May Day tradition, welcoming the return of Spring, stretches back hundreds of years, with people originally celebrating around a living tree rather than a pole. 

1905 Volunteer clearing bee for Victoria Park, Lonsdale. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 53

Clearing Land to establish Victoria Park with Donkey Engine. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 502

1909 North Vancouver's first Maypole Dance. West side of Victoria Park. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 3208

By 1912, Victoria Park had a bandstand and 1915 saw the installation of a large, granite water trough at the eastern edge of the west side park for the cart horses pulling loads up and down the Lonsdale hill. The horse trough is still there with a beautiful sculpture of a horse in “drinking” position and hoof prints leading to it!

1920s Bandstand in Victoria Park West. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 11411

Horse Trough in Victoria Park West, built in 1915. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 14098

Horse sculpture and 1915 granite trough. Lonsdale at West Keith Road. Photo by Jennifer Clay

Hoof prints in the sidewalk leading to the Horse Trough. Londsale and West Keith Road. Photo by Jennnifer Clay.

1909 Lonsdale Avenue with Horses View north up Lonsdale Ave. from Third St. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 4856

In 1923, the Cenotaph was unveiled in the east park where it also still stands to this day. As well, many of the park’s original trees still stand today.

So, who were a part of the park’s development story?

Early North Vancouver settlers Alfred St. George Hamersley, James Pemberton Fell and Henry Blackadder, as well as Edward Mahon, were all a part of the Victoria Park story, with Hamersley and Mahon being the star players.

Let’s start with Henry Blackadder, a minor player.

North Vancouver readers will be familiar with the 1950s Cold War air siren and the 1923 Cenotaph, both reminders of the 20th century’s history of conflict. The Cenotaph was dedicated to the citizens of the City and District of North Vancouver who gave their lives in WWI. Later, it was rededicated to include those who sacrificed their lives during the Boer War, WWII, the Korean War and in peacekeeping missions. One of the cenotaph architects was a Dundonian, Henry Blackadder, who had left his native Scotland in 1911 for a new life in North Vancouver, where his distinctive British Arts and Crafts style of residential design remains part of North Vancouver’s heritage today. Henry served overseas as a lieutenant during WWI, while during WWII he put his practice on hold and worked in the drawing office of Burrard Dry Dock and Wallace Shipyards during the wartime shipbuilding effort. 

1923 Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph, Victoria Park. Background house 142 East Keith, now a high-rise. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 8933

Henry also oversaw the construction of the 1914 Colonel J.P. Fell Armoury in Mahon Park. James Pemberton Fell, who also served in WWI, was the agent for Lonsdale Estates and the nephew of Arthur Pemberton Lonsdale, an English real estate investor who never set foot in Canada but whose name lives on in Lonsdale Avenue. Each year, on November 11th, members of the military and war veterans assemble at the J.P. Fell Armoury to begin their march to the Cenotaph. Accompanied by the mournful skirl of the bagpipes, they are met by a crowd of hundreds gathered at the park for the Remembrance Day Ceremony.

1918 Group of officers - Lt. H. Blackadder top row left. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 10010

191? Colonel James P. Fell, Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 9826

Real Estate companies and the land for the park.

At the end of the 19th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century, two real estate development companies dominated the North Shore. As mentioned, there was Lonsdale Estates with J.P. Fell as the agent for his British Lonsdale uncle, and there was the North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company. The principal shareholder of NVLI was an Anglo/Irish man named John Mahon, who appointed Edward, his younger brother, to be the company president in North Vancouver. Another shareholder in the company was James Cooper Keith of the eponymous Keith Road that would border Victoria Park. Unlike Arthur Pemberton Lonsdale, John Mahon visited North Vancouver more than once, the first time being in 1889. He had by then visited many parts of the world in search of investment opportunities for the vast fortune he had inherited from his uncle. He decided that the North Shore had the potential he sought and returned home to persuade his brother Edward to move to Vancouver to manage the company.

1 July, 1907, City Fathers on occasion of incorporation of the City of North Vancouver, On bench Mahon second from right, James Cooper Keith, second from left. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 96

In 1902, Alfred St. George Hamersley entered the North Vancouver real estate scene. Like Fell and Mahon, Hamersley came from an affluent upper-class British background and, just like them, he was a product of an English Public School, in his case Marlborough. In 1874, two years after being called to the bar as a barrister in London, he emigrated to New Zealand, where he practiced law in South Canterbury and where he married Isabella Maud Snow. In 1888, the Hamersleys said goodbye to New Zealand and moved to Vancouver, where Alfred took the position of the City of Vancouver’s first solicitor. Like many settlers, he caught the real estate investment and development bug and that led to his purchase in 1902 of land in the District of North Vancouver from the Lonsdale Estates.

1902, Alfred & Maud Hamersley and family., Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 4578

By 1902 Arthur Pemberton Lonsdale was deceased and his son Henry Heywood Lonsdale had taken over the company and with the cost of rising taxes he instructed his agent and cousin, J.P. Fell, to sell some of the property they held. Hamersley purchased 20,000 acres from them in the area we know as Lower Lonsdale. The location of the land parcel was just south of land owned by Mahon’s North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company.

The downhill access road to the ferry wharf, Lonsdale Avenue, was a very rough logging road. Hamersley set about improving the road from the wharf to 8th Street naming the entire area the Lonsdale Township. Next, he subdivided and sold the lots for residential and commercial development. Lower Lonsdale quickly became the site of new homes and businesses.

Hamersley, whose family residence was in Vancouver, decided to build a large and impressive family home, Hamersley House, at 350 East Second Street. It was built with brick and concrete and it is believed to be the earliest building in the Vancouver region constructed using concrete above its foundation.

1904, Hamersley house at 350 E. 2nd St, Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 2425a

Moving to North Vancouver meant Hamersley became a commuter to Vancouver, and he quickly recognized the need for a reliable and efficient ferry service across Burrard Inlet. He gained a controlling interest in the North Vancouver and Power Company Ferry Service, so no surprise that in 1904 a new ferry was named St George. North Vancouver’s St George’s Avenue also took his name. 

By 1906, the first North Vancouver streetcar served passengers from the waterfront to central Lonsdale. By 1907, the City of North Vancouver had been incorporated and was no longer a part of the District of North Vancouver. But by 1906, Hamersley had moved his family to England. The story is that in 1905, when the B.C. Legislature banned the practice of lawyers and judges wearing wigs, Hamersley disapproved of the decision and some suggest that it was part of the reason for his return to England. Before leaving, Hamersley and his wife Maud donated the four acres of land that would become Victoria Park.

In 2010, a symbolic marble sculpture was placed in the west park with the words Enduring Love. The piece “invites bereaved parents to express the love felt for children lost from our sight but not from our hearts.”3.  It is a sad coincidence that in the August of the Hamersley’s first year of marriage, when living in New Zealand, Alfred and Maud, lost a son Edward at birth and their eldest son, Cecil, two months later.

Enduring Love by Daniel J. Cline. Photo by Jennifer Clay.

In 2008, the City of North Vancouver implemented upgrades throughout the Green Necklace with added and improved pathways, lights in some areas, and more benches and picnic tables, including in Victoria Park. When Covid hit in 2020, parks became a safe space to meet with friends. Victoria Park became a garden to the residents of the surrounding high rises and that appears to continue with people meeting, relaxing, walking dogs or playing bocce in a central city green space that was, and remains, a part of Edward Mahon’s vision for a Green Necklace in the City of North Vancouver. 

Fun Facts

  • Horse Trough - The 1915 Horse Trough was placed on the left side of the road as, until 1922, the British model of travelling was on the lefthand side. The trough is made from a single piece of granite.

  • Equestrian Sculpture with hoofprints embedded into the sidewalk - “The equestrian sculpture and historic water trough pay homage to those who trod before us. Horses ascending from the waterfront on the left side hauled supplies up the steep incline to developing commercial and residential sites. The path formed by stainless steel hoof prints leads to the place where horses paused for a much-needed rest” https://www.nvrc.ca/arts-culture/public-art/art-collection/long-ascent

  • Hamersley House - Since the Hamersleys left North Vancouver in 1905, it has been a Seniors’ Residence, Emerald Restaurant, a B&B and a daycare for children. In 1977 Hamersley House was protected from demolition by the CNV’s decision to purchase it. After heritage protection as a Municipal Heritage Site was put in place in 2000 the CNV Council voted to sell Hamersley House subject to the heritage controls and rezoning. https://cnvapps.cnv.org/Minutes/2000_04_10%20Council%20Meeting%20Minutes.pdf

    https://www.heritagevancouver.org/pdf_newsletter/hvs-news-2000-06-screen.pdf

Quotes

  1. Canada’s Historic Places - https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2426#:~:text=As%20an%20active%20civic%20park,Lower%20Lonsdale%20from%20Central%20Lonsdale.

  2. The Green Necklace Project, City of North Vancouver. https://www.nvrc.ca/sites/default/files/2022-09/pa_call_-_nv_green_necklace_final.pdf

  3. Enduring Love Sculpture for Bereaved Parents by Daniel J. Cline. https://www.nvrc.ca/arts-culture/public-art/art-collection/enduring-love

Acknowledgments and Sources

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