City of Regina Archives Photograph Collection, CORA-RPL-A-1779
  
   

Title: Birds'-eye view of Victoria Park
Date: 1920
Retrieval Number: CORA-A-1779
Extent: 1 B&W Print and 1 archival-quality negative; Print: 14 cm x 18.5 cm
Scope and Content Note: Victoria Park looking south towards Victoria Avenue . Baptist Church and Land Titles Building visible. Davin Fountain still in Victoria Park.
Access Restrictions: None
Photographer: Unknown
Parent fonds/collection: CORA Photograph Collection
Historical Note: Victoria Park was finally landscaped in the early part of the 20 th century. Frederick Todd was hired to create a plan to beautify the park. His design featured a spoke-like pattern of paths stretching out from a central focal point. When the park was first landscaped, the object at the centre of this wheel was the Davin Fountain. The fountain honoured the memory of Nicholas Flood Davin, the colourful founder of the Regina Leader. Davin was a journalist, a Member of Parliament, as well as a poet and playwright. He was one of Regina 's livelier characters, a man who liked his drink and carried on a scandalous love affair with Kate Simpson-Hayes, one of his reporters, fathering two children out of wedlock with her. Davin was the only reporter to interview Louis Riel before Riel's execution. He committed suicide in 1901 after a string of personal misfortunes. The fountain provided an ideal focal point for Victoria Park's magnificent design.

 


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