Esther Short Park - Vancouver, Washington
The Town Square
 

      
 Overshadowed
      in name by cosmopolitan Vancouver B.C. (300 miles to the north)
      and in everyday life by metropolitan Portland (just 10 miles
      south) Vancouver, Washington has long suffered an identity problem.
      The paradox in this is the fact that Vancouver, Washington is
      the oldest white settlement in the Pacific Northwest, and for
      many years was the cultural and economic center of frontier life.
      The town grew up around the Hudson Bay Company's Fort Vancouver,
      now recreated in a National Historic Site adjacent to downtown.
      Early in the town's history, Esther Short Park was established
      as the first public park in the Northwest, in 1853.


      
By the 1980s,
      however, the park had become an unkempt eyesore, and the City
      soon embarked on an ambitious downtown renewal plan that would
      not only restore the park to its former glory, but also elevate
      it to the center of an expanded downtown as the City's town square.
      The vision for the renewed park would include traditional features,
      like the bandstand (below), playground and winding paths, but
      also more uban elements, such as a clock tower, plaza and fountains.
      Most importantly, the park would be the central feature to a
      new urban neighborhood that would, once again, bring residents
      to downtown Vancouver.

      
 

      
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 All images
      are ©Tom Kloster, 2002, and may only be used by permission