Official Name:
The park is named after the Beasley Neighbourhood. The area gets its name from Colonel Richard Beasley (1761-1842), a pioneer, Hamilton merchant and politician, whose tombstone in Christ's Church Cathedral graveyard reads "the first settler of the Head of the Lake". Mr. Beasley lived in the area known as Burlington Heights around 1793, but was granted the land officially in 1798. He built his log house on the ridge between the present day Harvey Park and Dundurn Park. Later, the front wall of his brick house was built into the front wall of Dundurn Castle.
Originally, the park was supposed to be the 3.64 hectares (9 acres) located next to Dr. J. Edgar Davey School. In this case, it would include the former house of Lester B. Pearson, Canada's prime minister from 1963 to 1968. However, the building was too expensive to buy, so the park was re-planned smaller, and development finished in 1978.
During the week the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police operate a small office from the park community centre for a couple hours each day. Their focus is to interest residents from the surrounding area in Neighbourhood Watch and other community anti-crime programs.
The Beasley Park grounds have been redeveloped several times, most recently in June 1995, when the playground, including the water sprinkler, was made wheel-chair accessible.
Beasley Park is Hamilton's best known meeting place for graffiti art and skateboarding enthusiasts. Some graffiti art samples have been legally spray-painted near Beasley's famous skateboarding ramps by local artists. Skateboarders come to the park from other cities in southern Ontario and even from across the border, because Sarnia is the only other city in southern Ontario that offers concrete skateboarding ramps. By-laws in local towns such as Ancaster and Dundas limit skateboard use on public streets. That means you have to go into the city to "surf concrete" in Hamilton-Wentworth!
Every July since 1992, skateboarders, street artists, and rap, techno and hip-hop D.J.'s get together for the Beasley Park Amateur Skateboard Jam and Street Art Competition. The skateboarding finalists from this competition go on to the semi-final round of the Vans Amateur World Skate Contest in Montreal.
