Oppenheimer Park, Public park in Downtown Eastside Vancouver, Canada.
Oppenheimer Park occupies a rectangular block bounded by Jackson and Dunlevy Avenues and Powell and East Cordova Streets in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Its facilities include a softball field, a basketball hoop, a children's playground and a community centre with bathrooms, meeting space and public computer access. A paved walkway edged with a concrete curb crosses the lawn toward a low flat-roofed building with a grey concrete facade and a recessed dark glass entrance reached by a few steps; a curved metal bike rack stands in the grass beside a large tree trunk.
Opened in 1902 as Powell Street Grounds, the park was named for David Oppenheimer, Vancouver's second mayor, and later renamed in his honour. It was the site of a large demonstration by striking workers on Bloody Sunday in 1938, and the Asahi baseball team played its home games here before World War II.
The park lies in Japantown (Paueru-Gai) and hosts the Powell Street Festival, Vancouver's longest-running community celebration, along with the HomeGround Festival, an Asahi Tribute Baseball game and the Endless Summer Festival. Its name honours David Oppenheimer, the city's second mayor, who opened it in 1902 as Powell Street Grounds.
Oppenheimer Park is bounded by Jackson and Dunlevy Avenues and by Powell and East Cordova Streets in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The 2010 upgrade reconfigured the pathways, and a paved walkway with a concrete curb leads from the street to the community centre entrance, reached by a few steps under a wide overhang. The centre has bathrooms, meeting space and public computer access.
The park was once a venue for matches by the Asahi baseball team, a notable baseball club with Japanese Canadian connections. This sporting past connects the site to an important chapter in the area's community heritage.
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