Curran Park is located at 4100 Grand Valley Rd, Brandon, MB. Originally called Suburban Park, it underwent a formal name change in 1934, in honour of J.P. Curran, a lawyer, civil servant and judge, who died in 1928.
The City of Brandon first set aside $6000 for the acquisition of a new park in 1911, but the acquisition of appropriate land stalled for a number of years. Finally in 1919, the city was able to acquire a parcel of Crown land the Brandon Industrial School was located on, to establish the park; the land was acquired through a 99-year lease. Suburban Park officialy opened in 1921.
The development of the park was gradual. Some of the work was completed as part of the Brandon Parks Board's unemployment relief planning; from 1931-1936, relief workers cleared underbrush, thinned trees, constructed a road and built latrines. In 1933 a refreshment stand was approved and a large cook stove was donated.
The City of Brandon and the Department of Agriculture (in right of the Crown) agreed to terminate the original park lease in March 1965, with the city purchasing the land outright. Curran Park was sold to Gretna businessman Gerald Voth in 2001, and renamed Turtle Crossing.
Scope and Content
Item is a photograph of the pool at Curran Park, Brandon, MB.
Notes
History/Bio information was taken from A Cup of Cold Water: Alfred Kirkness and the Brandon Residential School Cemeteries by Anne Lindsay, Clare Cook, and David Cuthbert (Manitoba History journal, Number 78, Summer 2015).
Located south of Stanley Park along the 1400 block of Lorne Avenue, Park School was constructed in 1904. Designed by W.A. Elliot and built by the Brandon Construction Company the structure measured 71 x 107 feet and cost approximately $38,000.
The school featured a principal’s office, reception room, staff rooms, an assembly hall for eight hundred, and ten class rooms. The interior walls were lined with mahogany while the floors were made of western pine. The interior of the basement was constructed from Tyndall stone, while Crookston brick trimmed with Bedford stone made up the exterior.
The building was razed in September 1978. Hobbes Manor was built on the location.
Scope and Content
Item is a postcard showing Park School in Brandon, MB.
