By Nancy Miller Chenier
Bingham Park is named after Samuel Bingham (1845-1905), early resident of Lowertown and mayor of Ottawa between 1897 and 1899. He arranged to have the land set aside for the first city playground and reportedly also paid to refurbish it and to cover the caretaking costs. His efforts were not without controversy: in 1898, the Ottawa Citizen reported that ratepayers in the vicinity of the Ottawa Ward Playground protested the removal of electric lights on Cathcart and Bolton streets to improve illumination for the new playground.
Samuel Bingham was an avid sportsman who loved skating, snowshoeing, bicycling, canoeing and other outdoor pastimes. He would have enjoyed seeing the multiple activities in Bingham Park over the years, including bicycle rodeos, softball games and marble competitions in the summer and speed skating and hockey in the winter.
However, the park was not all about play. Early events included parades, festivals, and religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, a Youth Village that functioned like a city council provided political training for 16 to 21 year old residents.
As well, Ottawa’s oldest cooperative nursery school, later renamed the Betty Hyde Nursery School, opened here in 1952 in a small hut at the corner of Dalhousie and Bolton Streets.
The city’s parks department considered selling Bingham Park in the 1970s, after National Capital Commission expropriations and demolitions reduced the nearby population.