Strathcona Park is a large park in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It lies on the west bank of the Rideau River

Rideau River

thumb|Rapids on the Rideau River opposite [[Carleton University]].The Rideau River is a Southern Ontario river which flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is 146 km...

 and marks the eastern edge of the Sandy Hill

Sandy Hill

Sandy Hill is a bilingual neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario located just east of downtown. The neighbourhood is bordered on the west by the Rideau Canal and on the east by the Rideau River. To the north it stretches to Rideau Street and the Byward Market area while to the south it is bordered by...

 neighbourhood.

The area of the park was originally the swampy floodplain of the river, and was impossible to build on. The site first became home of the Dominion Rifle Range, where soldiers had trained before departing for the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

. This history is preserved in the name of Range Road, which runs along the west of the park. The area was turned into a park by the Ottawa Improvement Commission between 1904 and 1907. It was named after Lord Strathcona, a Canadian businessman and politician who had financed his own regiment in the Boer War

Boer War

The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

.

The most prominent feature of the 15 acres (6.1 ha) park is the fountain standing atop the hill that was donated by Lord Strathcona in 1909, sculpted by Mathurin Moreau

Mathurin Moreau

Mathurin Moreau was a French sculptor in the academic style.Moreau was born in Dijon, first exhibited in the 1848 Salon, and finally received a medal of honor from the Salon in 1897...

. The park's original design was a classic example of English public park design. It contained a pair of small ponds, gazebos, and Ottawa's first golf course. In the 1940s, the ponds were filled in due to their expense, and replaced with a wading pool. A baseball diamond was constructed at the southern end of the park in the 1920s and for many years was Ottawa's main venue for the sport.

The banks of the Rideau were once a popular swimming area, but today there is enough pollution, or perception thereof, to make this unpopular. During the summer the water level is low enough to ford the river and cross to Riverain Park in Vanier

Vanier, Ontario

-External links:**...

. Just to the south of Strathcona Park is Dutchy's Hole Park

Dutchy's Hole Park

Dutchy's Hole Park is a park on the Rideau River in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the downtown Ottawa neighbourhood of Sandy Hill. The park has a wading pool, playground, and a football field, called Robinson Field...

 and Robinson Field. In winter, the park, with its large hill at the northern end, is a popular site for tobogganing and making snowboard

Snowboard

Snowboards are boards, usually with a width the length of one's foot, with the ability to glide on snow. Snowboards are differentiated from monoskis by the stance of the user...

 jumps.

The park remained under the control of the OIC successor agency the National Capital Commission

National Capital Commission

The National Capital Commission , is a Canadian Crown corporation that administers the federally owned lands and buildings in Canada's National Capital Region, including Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.The NCC was created in 1959, replacing the Federal District Commission , which had been...

 until 1987 when it did not renew its lease with the city. Since then it has been a municipally managed park. In the early 1990s, the park was refurbished by the city. One of the most noted additions was the play structure designed by artist Stephen Brathwaite

Stephen Brathwaite

Stephen Brathwaite is a Canadian actor and puppeteer best known for his puppet work in the children's series Under the Umbrella Tree and Groundling Marsh in the 1980s and 1990s....

. Mr. Brathwaite designed a structure to look like ruins, inspired by Mackenzie King's ruin garden at Kingsmere. The structure was assembled out of blocks of stone that had been part of the parliament buildings

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...

, the Chateau Laurier

Château Laurier

The Fairmont Château Laurier is a landmark hotel in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive designed in the Châteauesque style.-History:...

, and other prominent Ottawa structures.

Since 1986, the park has been home to Odyssey Theatre, a theatre company that puts on open air plays each summer on a stage at the northeast corner of the park.

The park is surrounded by a series of large homes that once housed the elite of Ottawa. Today they are mostly embassies and the area around the park is often called Ottawa's Embassy Row

Embassy Row (Ottawa)

Embassy Row in Ottawa, Canada is generally considered the eastern part of the Sandy Hill and Lower Town neighbourhoods. These areas are sometimes home to buildings that serve as a chancery but more often they are ambassadorial residences...

. Perched above the park is the Russian embassy, formerly that of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

External links