Queen's Park
Queen's Park is an urban park in the Downtown area of Toronto. Opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, it was named in honor of Queen Victoria. The park is the site of the Ontario Legislature, which houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and so the phrase Queen's Park is also frequently used to refer to the Government of Ontario. Queen's Park is also the name of a street and a subway station, as described below.
The section of the park north of Wellesley Street follows the traditional
British design, dominated by large trees that provide extensive cover during
summer. Footpaths radiate outwards from an equestrian statue of Edward VII,
which stands on a large mound at the centre of the northern section. The statue
originally stood in India, but was moved to Canada after 1949, when India became
a Commonwealth republic. The main north-south path runs between the statue and
the war memorial of the 48th Highlanders at the park's northern tip. The site is
approximately oval; however the southwestern edge of Queens Park "kinks" in
somewhat (lower left side of the aerial image). In the past, this was the bank
of Taddle Creek. With the creek long-buried, the kink remains.
memory of a Royal visit
The southern section of the park is the site of the Ontario Legislature, the seat of the provincial government. The grounds contain several monuments commemorating notable historical figures and events:
* George Brown, one of the Fathers of Confederation
* King Edward VII moved from Delhi, India in 1969
* Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada
* John Sandfield Macdonald, first Premier of Ontario
* William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion
* Sir Oliver Mowat, third Premier of Ontario
* Northwest Rebellion memorial
* John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario
* Queen Victoria
* Sir James Pliny Whitney, sixth Premier of Ontario
* Ontario Veterans Memorial
* Queen Elizabeth II Rose Gardens in honor of Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee in
1977 and Golden Jubilee in 2002
Al Purdy Pool 1918 - 2000
A monument honoring militia volunteers who died fighting against Fenian invaders at the Battle of Limeridge is located just west of Queen's Park in an isolated corner of the University of Toronto campus. Although this monument was in Queen's Park at the time of its unveiling in 1870, it has since been cut off from the rest of the park by the construction of Queen's Park Crescent.
Survey Monument
The University of Toronto occupies most of the land surrounding the park.
Ministry buildings of the Ontario government are located to the east of the
park, in an area between Wellesley Street and Grosvenor Street.
Stewart Building
Department of Household Science
The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
Ontario Legislature
Ontario Legislative Building
The Ontario Legislature, also known as the Ontario Legislative Building or less formally as the Pink Palace, is the building that houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto, Ontario. The building sits in the middle of Queen's Park, south of Wellesley Street, on the former site of King's College (which later became the University of Toronto). The land is leased from the university to the province on a 999-year term, for a peppercorn payment of $1 per annum. The building, and by extension the provincial government, are frequently referred to as "Queen's Park".
Designed by architect Richard A. Waite, the five-storey building, completed in
1893, was constructed of pink-hued Ontario sandstone. Waite employed the
Richardsonian Romanesque style, taking advantage of the iron frame construction
to devote an uncharacteristically large area to windows. One tower was
originally intended to hold a clock, but it was never installed and a rose
window was built instead.
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (U of T) is a public research university in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest university in Canada in terms of student enrollment. The institution comprises sixteen academic faculties and a collegiate framework of eleven colleges within its principal campus St. George, which surrounds Queen's Park in the Downtown district. It is one of the most widely known and highly regarded universities in Canada and ranks highly in numerous world rankings. There are two other campuses along with the St. George campus in downtown Toronto—University of Toronto Scarborough and University of Toronto Mississauga.
St. Michael's College
The University was chartered in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the colony of Upper Canada. At first controlled by members of the Church of England and the colonial establishment, the university acquired its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. Since the creation of University College in 1853 as the first of its constituent colleges, the university had also incorporated the ecclesiastical schools of Trinity College, Victoria University and St. Michael's College among others into its organization.
Text from Wikipedia
Cumberland House
