Reason #74 of '101 Reasons Why I Heart Edmonton'

William Hawrelak Park By Emil Tiedemann More than 10,000 people paid their respects to William Hawrelak (1915-75) as his body lay in city council chambers, after the former Edmonton mayor suffered a heart attack and passed away on November 7, 1975. Locals skating on the man-made lake at Hawrelak during winter. As Edmonton’s longest-running mayor in history (1951-59, 1963-65, and 1974-75), Hawrelak and his council were able to construct some of Edmonton’s most treasured landmarks in an era of prosperity for the city, including Fort Edmonton Park, the Edmonton Valley Zoo, Stanley A. Milner Library, Borden Park, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the Riverside Golf Course, Groat Bridge, Edmonton’s section of the Yellowhead Trail, and the Mayfair Park, which would later be renamed William Hawrelak Park . The park has become one of the city’s most beloved destinations among the extensive green belt that wraps the city, at 68 hectares of green space with a five-hect...