OK, I've got a detail-oriented question about Victoria Park (organizing and speech site for the General Strike that sat where Sky Condos is now on Waterfront).
In looking over old strike photos taken in Victoria Park, it quickly becomes evident that there is a huge pipe running through the middle of the park. I think, but am not 100% sure, that it runs east to west, basically bisecting the park. My question is, what is this pipe?
I know the aqueduct runs under Pacific Avenue (just slightly north of where I think this would have run) now and opened in 1919, so could it be that it originally ran above ground through the park? Some sort of temporary line before it could be buried below Pacific?
In reflecting on this admittedly minor issue, I began to think about the park in relation to the strike and some of the folklore that has been bandied about in the past few years. Namely, that the park was decommissioned and used as the site for the Amy St. Steam Plant in order to take away an important symbol of the strike. But perhaps the park was already well on its way out by the time the strike came around and the timing is more coincidence than anything else.
Clearly, the park was insignificant enough to the city at that point in time that a giant, ugly metal pipe could be run right through the middle of it. Could you imagine the outcry if that was proposed at any big park today? As well, if you look at the houses in the background in pictures like the one above, it's clear that they have seen better days. This picture is taken from the middle of the park looking towards the corner of Amy St and Pacific Ave (when that corner existed!). The houses on Amy were taken down when the steam plant was built, but don't look like they would have lasted long anyway. The area was already on full decline from a residential standpoint and on a full industrial upswing.
As well, there was no Waterfront Drive...what separated the park from the beautiful river vista just beyond it? A multi-track transfer railway. My how serene. The James Ave Pumping Station, which would have hardly been considered a park-like amenity was built next to the park a full 13 years before the strike.
The only reason why the strikers gathered in that space was not because it had any significance to them. It just that it was the closest large open space to the Labour Temple, which stood at 165 James Ave (between Main and what was then Louise and is now, sort of, Lily).
The Amy St Steam Plant was built on the site of Victoria Park from 1922-24. Given that it was to provide backup power generation and (as a side benefit) steam heat to downtown Winnipeg, where else could it have been built. Realistically, even if the strike didn't happen, the run down public park (no land acquisition needed) with a large pipe bisecting it, surrounded by dilapidated houses in an area that has essentially become industrial and sits beside a railway track sounds like an ideal site to me. No 'revenge' or 'desired to erase history' needed.
Anyway, just some ramblings for you to ponder during Doors Open weekend...