History
The area was part of Ottawa's downtown for many years, the site of businesses related to the nearby Rideau Canal, such as Dey's Boat Works. The location was the site of The Arena from 1908 to 1927, where the original Ottawa Senators ice hockey team played. The land bordering the canal was cleared in 1927, including the demolition of the arena. The land was used to build "The Driveway" roadway along the canal, as a scenic improvement of the capital.
Along Elgin Street, the location was occupied by the Roxborough Apartments, a luxury apartment complex that had once been home to many Ottawa elites, such as Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent. As part of the 1949 Greber Plan, the site was to be cleared for a "Confederation Park" along the Canal from Laurier Avenue to Wellington Street surrounded by public buildings. The apartments and a number of buildings were expropriated and demolished by the federal government to build a "National Museum of Science" in 1965. The area north of the Mackenzie King bridge had already been cleared as part of the building of Confederation Square. That section was ultimately used for the construction of the National Arts Centre. In 1967, the Museum site was converted to parkland, to commemorate the Canadian Centennial (the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation).
From 1971 to 1993, the park was home to Ed Zelenak's massive sculpture, "Traffic." The controversial work was a large brown tube of fiberglass that was compared to a large worm or piece of dung, and led to much debate over modern art in Ottawa. It was later relocated to a more obscure location by the National Gallery.
Read more about this topic: Confederation Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)