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Queen Victoria Park is the main parkland located in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada opposite the American and Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Established by a Provincial Park Act in 1885 and opened in 1888, the park is operated by the Niagara Parks Commission and is considered the centerpiece of the Niagara Falls recreational tourist area. The park is known for its outstanding flower displays of daffodils and roses in-season, with many of the plantings done in a carpet-bedding design. Queen Victoria Park is also the focal point for the annual winter ''Festival of Lights''. == Early History (up to 1888) == The area comprising Queen Victoria Park was originally part of the upper Niagara River bed. Father Louis Hennepin is purported to be the first visitor to explore the area in depth in 1678. Active settlements in the area did not begin until the dawn of the 19th century with the establishment of a small hut which served as an inn. William Forsyth, a Buffalo immigrant, settled in the area in 1818 and by 1822, had established the first stairway down to the lower Niagara River below the falls, in addition to the first substantial building in the area, the ''Pavilion Hotel''. By the late 1820s, the parcel was sold to Thomas Clark and Samuel Street, who began the construction of several buildings near the area now called Table Rock on the south end of the future park property. They were joined in competition by Thomas Barnett who, in 1827, built a museum just south of Table Rock, on the present site of the Table Rock Center. The north end of the property, now occupied by Oakes Garden Theater, housed the ''Clifton House'', built in 1833 and catering to the well-to-do traveller. Samuel Zimmerman, who built his fortune on helping construct the second Welland Canal and the Great Western Railway, then appropriated of land opposite the American Falls with plans to design an elaborate estate. The estate did not come to pass; upon Zimmerman's tragic death in 1856, only two gatehouses and a fountain had been built. By the late 1850s, Saul Davis came to Canada after having operated the ''Prospect House'' in Niagara Falls, New York. He immediately erected a similar museum next to Barnett's, called Table Rock House. Barnett and Davis soon became bitter rivals, as each fiercely attempted to outdo the other with competing stairways down to the lower level of the Horseshoe Falls. Customers desiring to go to one museum would be intercepted by members of the other museum and forced to pay (often by way of threats of physical violence by Davis' employees) for services and products they did not want to buy. This area became known as ''The Front'', a notorious tourist trap. By 1859, Barnett built a substantial building on the site of the present-day Victoria Park Restaurant and began adding to his museum collection there, yet his war with Davis at the Falls would last into the 1870s, when Barnett's riverfront museum went into receivership. The first suggestion of a park at this site came in 1873 as an idea offered by Edmund Burke Wood, a member of Canadian Parliament, in an effort to quell the criminal element in the area. This idea was refused, however, by the new Premier, Oliver Mowat, even when given a federal offer to split the cost of establishing such a park. By 1880, Mowat began considering the possibility of using a private corporation to take on the idea. Several proposals were floated in the ensuing years, all either struck down by Mowat or failing to get legislative backing. Mowat did not want the government to pay for land acquisition and development. A three-member committee was established in 1885, headed by Polish immigrant Sir Casimir Gzowski, who proposed a government-run park encompassing , to be free to the public. A follow-up report in 1887 warning of "general regret and disappointment" convinced Mowat to push through the ''Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park Act'' in March, 1887. Unsightly outbuildings were razed, grounds were cleaned up, and Queen Victoria Park was officially opened to the public on May 24, 1888; the birthday of Queen Victoria. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Queen Victoria Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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