Veterans’ Square chosen as name for new urban park in Oshawa, Ontario

Oshawa’s almost-complete urban square in the heart of the city will be named Veterans’ Square after an 11th-hour motion to name it after a family synonymous with the history of music in the city failed to get the needed votes.

A subsequent attempt to defer the naming of the new park at the corner of Simcoe Street and Bond Street to give more time for public consultation lost by a single vote.

City councillors were charged with deciding between three options for a name for the square – due to open later this year – and had three staff-suggested names on the table Monday before a motion from Councillor Derek Giberson to consider McCrohan Music Park as an appropriate name.

Giberson wanted to honour the McCrohan name, a family that had a “huge impact” on the music scene in the city since Owen McGrohan took over management of the waterfront Jubilee Pavilion in 1932.

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper cruising to ‘Born to be Wild’ in the 1969 classic ‘Easy Rider’

McCrohan managed the venue until his death in 1981 and booked well-known touring acts from the big bands of the 30s and 40s to major rock and roll and pop acts from Rush to The Supremes but perhaps his biggest contribution was made by his sons Dennis and Jerry, who go on to found the Sparrows – who would later become Steppenwolf, one the most important bands of the 1960s and 70s. Dennis McCrohan would change his name to Mars Bonfire and write the rock anthem ‘Born to be Wild,” which was featured in the Oscar-nominated 1969 film ‘Easy Rider’ and named by Rolling Stone magazine as one the greatest songs in rock and roll history.

“The Jubilee was critical in establishing what became the music scene and the rock scene in Oshawa,” Giberson said.

Council voted down ‘McCrohan Music Park’ as an option, however, with three options up for consideration: Celebration Square, Veterans’ Square and Heritage Square.

Councillor Bob Chapman opted for ‘Veterans’ Square’ as a tribute to Canada’s military history and the armoury, which is located immediately to the north of the site. The square would be a fitting place for military band performance and civic commemorations and would serve to honour the city’s veterans, past and present.

Councillor Brian Nicholson added a motion that the four branches of the military – army, navy, air force and coast guard – be commemorated at each of the gardens that will be in the park.

Other suggestions received from the public over the past week included Skae’s Corners, Centennial Square and Adam White Park.

Work on the $2.487 million signature project at the northeast corner of Simcoe Street and Bond Street began earlier this year and is expected to be finished before the first snows.

The project – high on the wish list since the city expropriated the empty parking lot in the summer of 2022 – promises to be the new focal point for community events downtown, with the goal of transforming the former parking lot into a vibrant public oriented-pedestrian space.

Hawkins Contracting Services of Stouffville, with a resume that includes more than three dozen similar in scope projects in the GTA over the past dozen years, won the contract for the work.

The new one-quarter hectare public square will serve as a flexible community gathering place capable of hosting concerts, markets, civic ceremonies and cultural programming, with its location close to venues like the BOND|ST Event Centre, the Regent and Biltmore theatres and the Col. R.S. McLaughlin Armoury allowing it to stake its claim, according to a Safety & Facilities staff report, as the “cultural and ceremonial heart of the city.”

Veterans’ Square was approved by a 10-1 vote, with Chapman noting the McCrohan family could be honoured with a plaque inside the park.