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).
Photograph shows Robert (Bob) Ford dressed as the Pied Piper playing a soprano saxophone surrounded by children in costume, some carrying Brandon University Alumni pennants. Photo was taken during the Brandon University Homecoming Parade held in downtown Brandon.
Photograph is a studio portrait of a men's lacrosse team. Two men are in suits and the remainder of the players are wearing striped sweaters and the goalie is wearing pads.
Notes
John Brodie is possibly in the photograph, back row, second from the left. Photograph date obtained from time period in which Rosetta Ernestine Carr worked in Winnipeg. (Source: Virginia G. Berry, “WATSON, ROSETTA ERNESTINE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 17, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/watson_rosetta_ernestine_13E.html.)
Photograph shows a large group of men dressed in shirts and ties with jackets or cardigans posing on a lawn. One man has a pansy on his lapel. Before them are lawn bowling balls in netted bags and a large dog.
Notes
Writing on the front of the photograph reads: 20th Annual tournament Manitoba Lawn Bowling Association Wpg. Aug. 8-13-27, Bauslaugh Studio
Photograph shows a group of 10 men, eight whom are wearing sweaters with the letters WCBC appliqued across the chest. The goalie is seated in a wodden chair and wears his goalie pads and skates. The four other players in the front row are also wearing skates and have their hockey sticks.
Notes
Writing on the front of the photograph mat reads: Wheat City Business College Hockey Club, 1912
Dr. Fleming arrived May 1881 and set up his drugstore “Apothecaries Hall” in a tent. Fleming was the first medical man in Brandon, first to agitate for a hospital, and first chairman of the school board. He died November 1897.
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Samuel Bronfman began business in Brandon and eventually became head of Seagram Co. Ltd.
[See: "Booze: the impact of whisky on the prairie west " by James H. Grey; "Bronfman dynasty: the Rothschilds of the new world" by Peter Newman (P.E. 22/05/09)]
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.