Across the street from the Hotel Saskatchewan is a park that I identify as downtown. I suspect consumers would argue that Cornwall center is, but this pretty park, flanked by a CP hotel and the library, was the center of the universe to me. Books and architecture and Saskatoons at the farmer's market. This is my happy place in Regina, with Wascana Park a close second.
I worked at the Regina Public library in high school, rewinding and repairing films in the AV department, back when projectors were the norm for showing film in class, not a tv! It is classic place, and it the bones of it are not much changed. From memory, I am sure that this interior is the same:
From the date on the wall, this probably is not changed, but the brick seems to be from a more modern era than my time there.
I honestly don't remember these ruins. There was a time when it was all the rage in canada for the wealthy (I learned this from William Mackenzie King's estate) to recreate their own ruins. Maybe this was always there? The courtyard was for sure. Ancient Greece and Rome was not on my radar at the time.
One of two churches on the park is the Knox Metropolitan United. Like many others, it had to rebuild after a tornado struck Regina, in 1912. In retrospect, this boded ill of a wedding to take place on June 30th, 2002.
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| The wedding cake building on Scarth Street, as my mom would call it. It is a goverment of Canada building that is, of course, Art Deco. This space, however, has a more infamous claim to fame. It the site of the building, where in 1885, Louis Riel was "tried" and sentenced to hang. |
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| There is no statue of Victoria in the park, but there is one of John A MacDonald, looking a little like Lewis Carroll in his jauty pose. |
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The stark central figure of the park: the war memorial (cenotaph).
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