The following article appeared in the Joly 11 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
On a sunny July day in 1967, members of the City of Guelph parks board got first crack at trying recreational “watercycles” they had purchased for use at Riverside Park.
That’s just about all I’ve been able to learn about the amusing “mystery” photo that appeared in last week’s column.
It’s an old Guelph Mercury photo and comes from the Guelph Public Library’s wonderful online collection of images — hundreds of them — from the Royal City’s past.
Several readers sent along emails correctly identifying where the watercycle photo was taken.
Riverside Park, at 709 Woolwich St., includes 80 acres that straddle a stretch of the Speed River roughly two kilometres north of the city’s core. Minor baseball players make good use of its three diamonds, but the park is probably best known for its carousel (merry-go-round), floral clock and bandshell. It’s also where Guelph’s annual Canada Day celebrations are held.
“Growing up in Guelph, Riverside Park was the place to be, we spent most weekends there, we took our own children there, and now we take our grandchild,” reader Cheryl Sajkowski said in a note.
The park was officially opened in 1905 on 14.5 acres that had been part of a Guelph Township farm owned by a man named Alfred Lace. It came to be in large part through the efforts of a Guelph civic booster named J.W. Lyon.
According to Ross Irwin, a past president of the Guelph Historical Society who has written about the park’s history and about many other aspects of the city’s history, Lyon was an American by birth and owned the World Publishing Co., a prominent Guelph business.
It produced books sold by travelling salespeople in countries around the globe.
In the early 1900s, Lyon was also involved in promoting the Guelph Radial Railway, which operated a streetcar line. It had been launched in 1895 as the Guelph Railway Co. by George Sleeman.
One of its initial lines ran across the city along Waterloo Street. Near the line’s west end were Sleeman’s brewery, since demolished, and his grand home, which today is the Manor Adult Entertainment Complex, next to the Hanlon Expressway.
Another line ran north, close to the Elora Road (today’s Woolwich Street) and continuing to the Union Cemetery, today’s Woodlawn Memorial Park cemetery.
The streetcar venture wasn’t profitable and in 1903, about the same time it was renamed the Guelph Radial Railway, it was acquired by the City of Guelph.
Lyon figured the financial picture would improve if the system led to a recreation area — one that residents would want to visit.
He worked to convince the city to buy the Lace farm and in 1904 wrote a letter to the city explaining the railway’s situation:
“I and the Directors are extremely anxious to make the Guelph Radial Railway a success financially as well as a means of recreation. While our earnings are going up, the trouble with the line is that it starts nowhere and goes nowhere or, as it is said with a smile, from a brewery to a cemetery.”
According to Irwin, when the city was slow to respond, Lyon purchased the Lace property himself. Not long after, however, the city agreed to buy it from him. It remained with the Guelph Township boundaries until 1953.
In 1905, the Guelph Radial Railway held a park-naming contest for its new “pleasure resort” and Riverside Park was declared the winning name. For five cents you could get to the park from any stop on the streetcar line.
The old Lace farmhouse still stands near the Woolwich Street entrance to the park and is now used for office space by the city.
Now Available! Guelph City Council meetings are broadcast live online at 