Burke Mountain Naturalists are known for their commitment green causes and, on the Riverview Hospital grounds, they've frequently hosted walks to show of the site's impressive collection of trees.
But the next BMN walk is focused on the works of man, not Mother Nature.
On Sunday, May 1, BMN member Don Gillespie will lead a heritage-themed walk through the Riverview grounds.
At almost 100 hectares in area, Riverview Hospital is Coquitlam's largest heritage site, featuring a number of significant buildings. Originally established in 1904 as Essondale, a hospital for the mentally ill, the site was planned to be an aesthetically pleasing and therapeutic landscape. A century ago in 1911, John Davidson was hired from Scotland as B.C.'s first botanist. With the help of patients, he established B.C.'s first botanical garden and nursery that soon contained 26,000 plants.
Essondale was designed in the manner of a gracious English country estate, with formal gardens, curved roads and an impressive tree collection. In 1921, when the provincial Boys Industrial School opened on the north end of the site, the formal gardens and road network were extended into this area.
With the aid of historic photographs, Gillespie will point out some of these features.
The two-hour BMN heritage landscape walk will begin at 1 p.m. on May 1, with walkers meeting near the uphill entrance of the Henry Esson Young building off Kalmia Drive.
For more information, see www.bmn.bc.ca; for a site map, visit www.rhcs.org.
Sturdy shoes are recommended for walkers as the ground is uneven in places and grassy slopes can be slippery.
