The Rotary Park arch marks the entrance to the historic park.--SUBMITTED PHOTO SALLY SEHN
Rotary Park on Maple Avenue, with its historic 1932 arch, is such an established green area that it is hard to believe that the site was not always what it seems.
Before it became Rotary Park, the area was known as the North Side Park. It wasn’t much of a park, just bare lots, used as a playground by the neighbourhood kids who took advantage of the two-and-a-half-acre property after it had been vacated by the commercial businesses that had operated from this site in the early twentieth century.
These businesses were the Finlay and Co. Lumber Yard and the Revelstoke Lumber Yard & Sawmill Company. The Finlay lumber yard was owned and operated by none other than William Finlay, former mayor, MLA, and the namesake for Finlay Bridge, where the adjacent land was once the site of his original lumberyard. In 1912, Finlay sold his business to the Crown Lumber Co. Ltd. Around the same time, Home Builders Ltd. moved into the former Revelstoke lot and Massey Harris Co. Ltd. operated from the southeast end of the site. By 1913, the CPR had run a rail siding right down the middle of the property, where the current gazebo stands.
Post World War I, the property was unoccupied. In the late 1920s, City Alderman W.E. McCombs proposed that the site be set aside for a city park. This caught the interest of the Rotary Club which raised money to build a pool given to the City in 1931. The original pool was unheated and unchlorinated. The custom at the time was to walk through a trough of milky, bleachy water before you could enter the pool. The following year, City Parks, with the sponsorship of the Rotary Club, ploughed up and graded the grounds, built a rockery garden, and laid concrete around the pool and dressing house. In 1932, grass was seeded, and shrubs planted.
Still called North Side Park, or the Maple Avenue pool, in 1935 City Hall officially changed the name to Rotary Park. But it didn’t stick. Right up to 1940, the familiar name hung on, even the Rotarians in club minutes from 1940, still referred to the park as North Side.
That was about to change. On June 27, 1940, Rotary Park had its grand opening. To celebrate the occasion, the historical arch, proudly displaying the Rotary Park name, was created.
In 1955 plans were approved to install chlorinating, filtering, recirculation, and heating equipment to the old cold-water pool. In 1959 the pool, remodelled by Calgary firm Haddin Davis and Brown, opened. The heated pool was a joy to city kids who had long suffered the cold-water pools. The new pool operated for another 14 years. Amidst a great deal of controversy, the Rotary Park pool closed at the end of 1973.
Today the park is popular for leisurely strolls and photo shoots.
Sally Sehn is a past member of the Heritage Resources Committee, City of Medicine Hat
