Assiniboine Park and Zoo

Backgrounder

Established in 1904, and born of boosterism and reform movements in the North American West, Assiniboine Park and Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba, represents a defining episode in urban park development in Canada’s rapidly-growing cities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also speaks to evolving practices at what is the oldest remaining zoo in Canada. This rare surviving example of a combined park and zoo remains a thriving and dynamic urban park.

With Winnipeg’s aspirations to be the gateway to the Canadian West, the city’s park planning policy, from which the park was created, illustrates an innovative approach in Canada for emphasizing a system of parks throughout the city as essential services for the enjoyment and recreational benefit of its citizens. The Public Parks Act of 1892 arose from the dual concerns to build a city that was attractive for investors while also improving the quality of life in the overcrowded urban core where the impoverished resided in slums and industrial workers flocked in search of employment. Assiniboine Park was the largest of a system of recreational areas and treed boulevards. The Parks Board employed the American-born landscape architect Frederick G. Todd to design Assiniboine Park. A former apprentice of Frederick Law Olmstead, the renowned architect of Central Park in New York City and Mount Royal in Montréal, Quebec, Todd had a great influence on urban landscapes in Canada, designing gardens, parks and even planning neighbourhoods like Shaughnessy Heights in Vancouver, British Columbia. English émigré George Champion was responsible for executing plans devised by Todd. Champion believed strongly that the park could be an enlightening influence in society, if only by educating visitors about natural history. Assiniboine Park and Zoo opened to the public on Victoria Day in 1909.

The park’s zoo, an original component of the park and the oldest remaining zoo in Canada, recounts the ongoing educational purpose of the park and speaks to the changing relationship between humans and animals. It demonstrates how western societies have organized, experienced and understood the natural world during the 20th century. Originally housed in temporary structures and displaying animals like bears in pits, the zoo reflected widespread beliefs that the role of humans was to observe, catalogue and dominate the natural world. In 1950, the Parks Board established a Zoo Advisory Committee that, in consultation with zoological experts, planned for the reinvention of the zoo as more of an educational space and living museum. Animals were increasingly housed in spaces designed with their wellbeing in mind and which replicated natural habitats. Exhibitions like the Tropical House, opened in 1972, also offered visitors the immersive experience of entering climate-controlled environments shared by the animals.

Assiniboine Park and Zoo continues to be the site of celebrated local landmarks such as the Pavilion and Conservatory, sculptures, floral gardens, and sports facilities, including baseball diamonds, cricket pitches, football fields and tennis courts. It has also been a favourite spot for picnics, civic events and commemorations. Maintained with pride for over a century, the zoo has successfully evolved, adapting to the changing needs of its citizens.

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