Vanier Park is a municipal park located in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

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, created in 1967. It is home to the

Museum of Vancouver The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) (formerly the Vancouver Museum and prior to that the Centennial Museum) is a civic history museum located in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. The MOV is the largest civic museum in Canada and the oldest museum ...

, the

Vancouver Maritime Museum The Vancouver Maritime Museum is a maritime museum devoted to presenting the maritime history of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the Canadian Arctic. Opened in 1959 as a Vancouver centennial project, it is located within Vanier Par ...

, the

City of Vancouver Archives The City of Vancouver Archives is the City of Vancouver's official archival repository for government documents, as well as the home to many personal and corporate records telling the story of the community. The archives serves as the repository for ...

, and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. It is also the site of the ancestral Squamish settlement of Sen̓áḵw, which was destroyed by the Provincial government 54 years earlier. Vanier Park view

History

The Squamish had an ancestral fishing ground on the site. In the mid-1800s, they established a more permanent village site there named Sen̓áḵw. During the Royal Engineer’s Survey of 1869, it was designated as "Indian Reserve No. 6". Sen̓áḵw encompassed 80 acres, and included Vanier Park. In 1877, chief

August Jack Khatsahlano August Jack (Khatsahlano, X̱ats'alanexw) (July 16, 1877 – June 5, 1971) was an Indigenous/ Aboriginal chief of the Squamish people. He was born in the village of Xwayxway on the peninsula that is now Stanley Park, Vancouver, or at ''Chaythoo ...

, after whom the Kitsilano neighbourhood was named, was born at Sen̓áḵw. The Canadian Pacific Railway, the Province and the City of Vancouver worked together to displace the Squamish inhabitants, with the City calling the settlement "a source of menace to the morals and health of the City". In 1913, the BC Government under

Richard McBride Sir Richard McBride, (December 15, 1870 – August 6, 1917) was a British Columbia politician and is often considered the founder of the British Columbia Conservative Party. McBride was first elected to the provincial legislature in the 1898 ...

expropriated the site, paying the inhabitants a fraction of the land's value, and giving them two days to leave before burning their homes to the ground. The land was acquired from the Province by the Federal government in 1928. Around the time of the second world war, the site was home to

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

(RCAF) station, Number 2 Equipment Depot. On October 28, 1966, it was turned over to the Vancouver Park Board by the Federal Government. Named for former Governor General of Canada

Georges Vanier Georges-Philias Vanier (23 April 1888 – 5 March 1967) was a Canadian military officer and diplomat who served as governor general of Canada, the first Quebecer and second Canadian-born person to hold the position. Vanier was born and ...

, the park officially opened on May 30, 1967. The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and the Vancouver Museum complex opened in 1968, thanks to lumber baron MacMillan’s $1.5 million donation. Deputy Park Board Superintendent William Livingstone, famous for his landscape design for Queen Elizabeth Park and

VanDusen Botanical Garden VanDusen Botanical Garden is a botanical garden situated in Vancouver, British Columbia, in its Shaughnessy neighborhood. It is located at the northwest corner of 37th Avenue and Oak Street. It is named for local lumberman and philanthropist Whitf ...

, increased the size of the original park site using tons of free fill from the excavation for the

MacMillan Bloedel MacMillan Bloedel Limited, sometimes referred to as "MacBlo", was a Canadian forestry company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was formed through the merger of three smaller forestry companies in 1951 and 1959. Those were the Po ...

Building on

Georgia Street Georgia Street is an east–west street in the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Its section in Downtown Vancouver, designated West Georgia Street, serves as one of the primary streets for the financial and central busin ...

. The fill added additional acres onto the park which was then landscaped by Livingstone and his crew.

Attractions

Vanier Park plays host to one of Vancouver’s biggest summer festivals, the Shakespearean

Bard on the Beach Bard on the Beach is Western Canada's largest professional Shakespeare festival. The theatre Festival runs annually from early June through September in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Festival is produced by Bard on the Beach Theatre Soc ...

and formerly the Vancouver International Children's Festival. It is the biggest and most famous of the fifteen parks in Kitsilano.

References

External links

Vancouver Park Board - Vanier Park
{{coord, 49, 16, 40, N, 123, 08, 36, W, scale:7500_region:CA-BC_type:landmark, name=Vanier Park, display=title Kitsilano Parks in Vancouver