Recommendation to Designate Under the Ontario Heritage Act Part

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT CITY OF HAMILTON - RECOMMENDATION - DATE: February 1, 2002 File: Author: S. Barber (905) 643-1262 x. 204 REPORT TO: Mayor and Members Committee of the Whole FROM: Lee Ann Coveyduck General Manager Planning and Development Department SUBJECT: Recommendation to Designate under the Ontario Heritage Act, Part IV, the Property at 685 York Boulevard in the Former City of Hamilton, Known as the Rock Garden (PD02019) (Affects Ward 1) RECOMMENDATION: (a) That Council be advised that the request for Designation by the Royal Botanical Gardens of its Rock Garden at 685 York Boulevard as a property of historical and architectural value or interest pursuant to the provisions of Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, 1990, be approved; and, (b) That Council be advised to direct Corporate Counsel to take appropriate action to designate under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, 1990, as described in the attached Reasons for Designation (Appendix A). _____________________________ Lee Ann Coveyduck General Manager Planning and Development Department CORPORATE IMPLICATIONS: Not applicable. Recommendation to Designate under the Ontario Heritage Act, Part IV, the Property at 685 York Boulevard in the Former City of Hamilton, Known as the Rock Garden (PD02019)(Affects Ward 1) Page 2 BACKGROUND: The former Hamilton LACAC approved the eligibility for designation of the Rock Garden at its meeting held July 10, 2000 in response to a letter of request from the President of the Royal Botanical Garden's (RBG) Board of Directors. The research material required for the preparation of the Reasons for Designation was prepared in the Spring/Summer of 2000 by the RBG's Policy, Planning and Co-ordination Intern, Sarah Stacey. At its meeting held December 12, 2001, the RGB Senior Management Team endorsed the proposed designation and Reasons for Designation. Maps and photographs attached (Appendix B). NOTE: Where the Council has appointed a Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC), it shall consult with this committee before giving notice of its intent to designate a property. Council must give reasons for its action, in the form of a summary of the architectural and historical significance of the property, identified as the “Reasons for Designation” which accompanies the Designation By-law. ANALYSIS: The Rock Garden of the Royal Botanical Gardens is included in the Inventory of Cultural Heritage Landscapes approved by the former Hamilton LACAC in 1988. It is also eligible for designation under the Ontario Heritage Act, as determined by the former Hamilton LACAC and given its status as a significant component of the Royal Botanical Gardens National Historic Site. Although the original intent of Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act was to protect built structures, in recent years it has been applied to cover "cultural heritage landscapes", such as parks, gardens and cemeteries (which may also include built structures). The Designation By-law provides some measure of protection from alteration and demolition of the designated built features, such as the configuration of planting beds, fountains, ponds, pathways, walls, sculpture, buildings, arbours, etc. The Rock Garden would be the first site in the City of Hamilton consisting primarily of artificial and natural landscape features to be designated under the Ontario Heritage Act (as opposed to a building complex in a landscape setting like Auchmar). LOCAL ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE (LACAC): Pursuant to subsection 29 (2) of the Ontario Heritage Act Council is required to consult with LACAC respecting its intention to designate a property under Subsection (1). At its meeting of December 21, 2001 the City of Hamilton LACAC endorsed the staff recommendation to approve the Intent to Designate the Rock Garden, Hamilton. Recommendation to Designate under the Ontario Heritage Act, Part IV, the Property at 685 York Boulevard in the Former City of Hamilton, Known as the Rock Garden (PD02019)(Affects Ward 1) Page 3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: (Vision 2020, adopted by Regional Council as its vision for the future of Hamilton-Wentworth and endorsed by the Transition Board as the basis of a vision for the "New" City of Hamilton, embodies the concept of a sustainable community which is an equal balance of the economy, the environment, and social/health factors in all municipal decision-making.) The designation of the Rock Garden will help to protect and enhance a valuable heritage resource and will therefore contribute to the Vision 2020 goal of preserving our built and natural heritage. :SB Attachs. (2) Appendix A to (PD02019) Committee of the Whole February 19, 2002 Rock Garden, Royal Botanical Gardens 685 York Boulevard, Hamilton REASONS FOR DESIGNATION Present and Historical Context The 6-acre Rock Garden, a spectacular display garden largely situated within a former gravel pit, is located on the west side of York Boulevard in Hamilton about 1 km north of the Thomas B. McQuesten High Level Bridge. The Rock Garden is part of the protected lands owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG), which today encompass 2,700 acres within the new City of Hamilton and the City of Burlington: 2,450 acres of woodlands and wetlands and 250 acres of cultivated gardens. The Rock Garden has always been one of the major attractions of the RBG. Other popular destinations include Princess Point and Cootes Paradise Sanctuary, the Arboretum, Rock Chapel Sanctuary, the Rose Garden, and the Laking Garden. The Royal Botanical Gardens is the only major botanic garden in Ontario. In 1997, it was also deemed to be of national significance and declared a National Historic Site. The acquisition by the Hamilton Parks Board in the late 1920s of 400 acres of natural woodland along the south shore of Cootes Paradise in Westdale marked the first step towards the creation of a botanic garden. Permission to use the prefix "royal" was granted by King George V in 1930. Hamilton lawyer Thomas McQuesten, who served on the Hamilton Parks Board from 1922 to 1948 and as President of the RBG Board of Directors from 1942, was instrumental in founding and developing the Royal Botanical Gardens and also guiding it towards independence from the City of Hamilton, which came about in 1941. McQuesten had envisaged a botanic garden modelled on Kew Garden in England, which not only displayed trees, shrubs and plants for public enjoyment but also promoted research and education in botany and related studies. The Rock Garden was the first cultivated area to become part of the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was the first and still is the only garden in Ontario to be created from an abandoned gravel pit. This garden was conceived as part of an elaborate beautification plan for the north-western entrance to the City of Hamilton, the result of a nation-wide competition initiated by architect Eric Arthur in 1927. The focus of the plan was the Burlington Heights causeway, a former beach ridge of Lake Iroquois, which by the 1920s had become an unsightly array of shanties, gas stations, gravel pits and billboards. Due to the Depression, however, only a few elements of the winning design by the landscape architect, Carl Borgstrom of the engineering firm of Wilson, Bunnell & Borgstrom were completed, including the High Level Bridge (1932), the Memorial Garden (circa 1930s) and the Rock Garden (1932). The Memorial Garden, designed by Canadian landscape architects H.B. and L.A. Dunnington-Grubb, was partially destroyed when York Boulevard was widened in the 1960s. Design, Construction and Development of the Rock Garden Construction of the Rock Garden was commenced in October 1929 under the able direction of a young Swedish landscape architect, Matt Broman, who had worked with Carl Borgstrom on the design and presentation drawings for the winning competition entry. The completion of the Appendix A to (PD02019) Committee of the Whole January 18, 2002 Rock Garden during the Depression would not have been possible without the federal and provincial funding directed towards large-scale unemployment relief projects. Unskilled heavy labour was utilized to place 10,000 tons of limestone selected from the escarpment face at Kings Forest in Albion Falls and in Waterdown. The rock structure for the garden was completed in 1932. Work continued until the former gravel pit was transformed into an attractive rockery with numerous pathways incorporating stone steps, bridges, and borders, a circulating stream with two large pools and a waterfall, and a variety of alpine vegetation. The amphitheatre shape of the garden provided a warmer-than-seasonal environment well suited to the growing of ornamental native and exotic plants. The Rock Garden was originally created as a drive-through park but after the reconstruction of York Boulevard in the 1960s, only pedestrian access was allowed. Since the mid-1970s visitors have entered the Rock Garden from a parking area on the opposite side of York Boulevard, connected to the garden by means of an underpass (a walkway adjacent to the abutment of the bridge over the railway tracks). The original roadway was left in place to provide access for service vehicles. The original planting scheme combined alpine rock plants with coniferous and deciduous shrubs and trees: notably, the two central willow trees, a fringe of Austrian and Scots pines, junipers and a selection of spiraeas, all of which have to some extent survived. Alongside the alpine vegetation, approximately 45,000 perennials were planted. Today the renowned spring blossoms include approximately 150 cultivars of tulips and a variety of shrubs and trees, including rhododendrons, flowering cherries, and azaleas, many of which are located around the upper rim of the bowl and on the flat ground to the north. To sustain public support and interest throughout the growing season, the Rock Garden was gradually transformed into a three-season display garden with a wide variety of annuals adding colour throughout the summer and ending with an autumn display of chrysanthemums.

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