Victory Square

Victory Square began as dense forest reserved as provincial property during a survey in February 1886. Ten weeks after the city's incorporation, the Great Fire of June 13, 1886 swept the area clean of logging debris. In 1889 a provincial courthouse was erected and maple trees were planted around the periphery, and the building stood until 1912, when it was demolished for a new site on Georgia Street. In 1900 the growing financial area began a military association when a bonfire set by Boer War celebrants damaged the freshly laid wood-block pavement at Cambie and Hastings. As Canadian casualties mounted in WWI, a movement began to preserve the area as a war memorial. In May 1917, alongside an army recruitment marquee, a giant Evangelistic Tabernacle was erected, covering most of the square before it was dismantled that July. During the summer of 1918, veterans raised money for war widows and dependants by constructing a realistic front-line trench complete with sandbags and barbed wire. On March 12, 1918, the city leased the square from BC Government for 99 years. Two years after the Armistice of 1918, Government Square was renamed Victory Square by the city and provincial governments, and two civic organizations began raising funds for a cenotaph. In April 1924, the Cenotaph was unveiled to 25,000 people, and it has since been the centre of all November 11th Remembrance Day services. Although no longer the centre of the city, Victory Square has remained a focus of protests, especially during the Depression era, when the unemployed rioted and then camped there. A major renovation in 2002 added a new layout, benches, and lamp standards with helmets as shades, with "soldier" lights standing at attention around the Cenotaph and at ease throughout the park.

British Columbia · Canada