Vancouver's Horticultural Jewel! Queen Elizabeth Park is the second most visited park in Vancouver and holds within its perimeters some of the most beautiful public gardens anywhere. Its recreational offerings are diverse ranging from sporty to horticultural and include golf, tennis, lawn bowling, disc golf, an extensive outdoor arboretum and the indoor Bloedel Floral Conservatory.The seasonally changing and beautifully planted Quarry Gardens astound residents and tourists alike as viewed from the park's upper reaches or from the bottom looking up. Expertly positioned, select ornamental trees and shrubs make this Vancouver's horticultural jewel located practically city-center.
Location: Off 33rd Avenue between Cambie and Main Streets, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
History
Queen Elizabeth Park started its life in Vancouver as something else entirely - a basalt quarry. As the 19th Century turned into the 20th, this, the highest point of land in the fledgling city, was the source of foundation rock for many miles of early Vancouver roads. It was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) who early on sold off parcels of its acreage to the Civic Water Committee for a reservoir when the Stanley Park facility at Prospect Point became too small for the quickly growing city. By 1911 the quarry was closed permanently and the dreadful scar of its works left like a raw wound on the landscape. There the land would sit for nearly two decades, in limbo, to all except the children of Vancouver who inhabited its hills, hollows and caves while nature cast her magic veil with brush and blackberries, claiming the forgotten property.
In 1928 the CPR agreed to sell 94.25 acres to the City of Vancouver and the Municipalities of South Vancouver and Point Grey for $100,000. This sale marked not only the future direction of Little Mountain as a park, but was one of the first cooperative acts between these separate Vancouver districts which proved a precursor to the great amalgamation of 1929.
Read more on park's history: Queen Elizabeth Park History
Link to park's Homepage: Queen Elizabeth Park
Map of park:
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