The Wabasso park and bathing beach had become expensive to maintain and it was being used less frequently.[83] Located across the bay it was some distance from the city and ferry service to it was sporadic. The board had considered purchasing a ferry boat to improve service to the park and hopefully increase its use but rejected the proposal in favour of another suggestion.[84] They were approached by three Welland businessmen who wanted to lease the park from the board and establish an amusement park and tourist camp there. The name of the park was changed to La Salle Park, to commemorate the explorer, who was believed to have visited the site in the eighteenth century, and to draw tourists to the park.[85] The parks board leased the park to the LaSalle Park Company for a period of ten years beginning in 1928. The idea of what properly constituted a public park had changed considerably since the parks board's formation in 1900.
1930 was a banner year in the opinion of the parks board. In that year Hamilton was host to the British Empire Games and the parks system, it seemed, was under the scrutiny of the entire world.[86] It was not found wanting. In 1927 the board had built a stadium at Scott Park and in 1929 it had built a municipal swimming pool. Hamilton's sports facilities had expanded from a few skating rinks and a baseball diamond to accomodation for every major athletic activity. The board's commitment to sport continued into the thirties and forties. Expansion in these decades was hampered by the financial stresses of the Depression and of the war effort.[87] However, two sports parks were equipped on the Mountain. Bruce Park was donated to the board in 1936 and Inch Park was given to the board by the city in 1938.[88]
The major focus of the parks board in the thirties was a beautification scheme that had its beginnings in a City Beautiful scheme developed in 1917. Advocates of the City Beautiful believed
| It would be a great advantage if the idea could be got in the heads of architects that beauty is not a quality to add to a city, but that it is or is not of the structure of it...every street in the city should be made as beautiful as it can be, and every building, as far as possible, should cohere with the general plan...it is not merely by erecting a fine structure here and there that you will make any great improvement, or even laying out a little bit of park, although that may be an item; the construction of the city throughout should be made as beautiful as it can be.[89] |
The parks board minutes for 1916 record the naming of a representative to the newly formed Town Planning Commission. Interest in the new science of town planning was common in Canadian cities at this time. Ottawa had commissioned a comprehensive plan of the city as early as 1903 and between 1910 and 1914 Kitchener, Maisonneuve, Winnipeg, Regina, and Calgary had undertaken city plans. If Hamilton was not to be outdone it needed a city plan. Such a plan was commissioned from an Ottawa landscape architect, Noulan Cauchon in 1917. It made specific recommendations regarding Hamilton park land development.
Cauchon's recommendations were extensive. He outlined plans to construct a terrace for three-quarters of a mile along the mountain face overlooking the city. Exclusively for the use of pedestrians it would be serviced with washrooms and restaurants. An example of such a walkway was the Dufferin Terrace in Quebec City. He recommended the purchase of land along the water front for beach development. The Dundas Marsh, he said, could be dredged and filled and an 'aviation campus' built. After the war aviation would become "a pleasure and a commercial factor of rapid intercourse".[91] An airport would be an investment in recreation and the future economy. The Red Hill Creek valley should be purchased from Albion Falls to its mouth at the bay. Ferguson Avenue would be developed as a broad boulevard approach to a Greek amphitheatre carved out of the mountain face. [92]
A scheme for the development of the north-western entrance to the city was the only one of Cauchon's recommendations which was eventually developed by the parks board. He stated:
| The Causeway, the high level western entrance, from the old canal to and including Dundurn park, affords a natural-bridge approach across the valley, giving a panoramic sweep of the Dundas Valley, the mountain, the city, the harbor, the beach and Lake Ontario fading into the distance,--unique and fascinating beyond words to express. This entire strip should become public property.[93] |
The city constructed a bridge joining York Street and the Toronto- Hamilton highway and the parks board in the twenties began to accumulate property in the area.
McKittrick Properties applied for the water lots on the Dundas marsh which were owned by the federal government. The board [94] opposed the developer's application and filed their own. Maintenance and beautification of the high level bridge property as well as a new boulevard on York Street was assumed by the parks board in 1925.[95] In 1926 McKittrick Properties declared bankruptcy. The city, which was owed two hundred thousand dollars for taxes was a major unsecured creditor. It was agreed that the city would erase the debt in exchange for three hundred seventy seven acres of land for park purposes.[96] The city transferred the land to the parks board in 1927.[97] In 1929 they aquired the land surrounding the Toronto-Hamilton highway.[98] The parks board had accumulated two hundred ninety five acres of land and one hundred seventeen acres of shore and water lots in the north-western region of the city.
Always supportive of any civic enhancement scheme the parks board agreed to transfer fifteen acres of the Westdale land to McMaster University in order that they might be persuaded to locate in the city. The university in turn agreed to move to Hamilton from Toronto and to help the parks board with the beautification plan they had for the rest of the land they held.[99] They were going to build a botanic garden.
Botanic gardens and arboretums were an outgrowth of the Gardenesque school of park design promoted in the nineteenth century in England.[100] A consultant to the parks board pointed out that such parks were much commoner in the 'Old world' than in North America. In an appeal to the civic pride of the parks board members he asserted that in Europe "nearly every important city boasts its garden".[101] Describing such gardens he declared
| a botanic garden differs from a park in that the arrangement of the trees and shrubs is less artificial and more like Nature herself. It thus provides all the splendid social values of the park plus the added advantage of an environment which is natural both in design and composition. Such a garden has three functions; social, educational and last but certainly not least scientific.[102] |
The parks board believed that their new park was an achievement worthy of the designation 'Royal'. They sent the plans of the beautification scheme to the Governor-General to consider and requested that the botanic gardens be called the 'Royal Botanical Gardens' . The request was approved.[103]
Throughout the Depression the parks board concentrated its efforts on the development of the botanic gardens. A Rockgarden was created out of the quarry that had been used in the construction of the Toronto-Hamilton highway. An arboretum was established and the trees and shrubs were labelled for the public's education. A Japanese garden was created and an elaboarate Sunken garden was laid out in front of McMaster University. From the beginning the Royal Botanical Garden was vigorously promoted as a tourist attraction. Their campaign to attract tourists was a successful one according to the board's annual reports.[104] Annual attendance figures increased each year. For this reason the board could justify expenditures or improvements and even for new purchases during years they labelled as ones of 'rigid economy'.
By 1941 the parks board had decided that the Royal Botanical Gardens had grown beyond the point where it could be adequately maintained by themselves. They had purchased more Westdale land and a one hundred twenty five acre farm adjoining the rock garden had been donated to them. They also believed that further expansion should be planned. It was decided that the gardens should be managed by a seperate board. The Ontario legislature agreed and the gardens passed out of the hands of the parks board.[105]