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Bowker Gates
(Willows Park, Beach Drive)
The gates, now located at the Beach Drive entrance to Willows Park, were
originally part of the garden landscape at 1931 Bowker Place, home of the
Bowker Family.
The property, known as Oak Bay Farm was the home of John Sylvester and
Mary Tod Bowker - a wedding gift from Mary's father, John Tod. The land
was part of John Tod's 200 acre holding, purchased from the Hudson's Bay
Company in 1851.
A row of Austrian pines, still lining the 1900 block of Oak Bay and remnants
of the granite wall, define the western boundary of the original estate.
While not on their original site, the gates still define the area of Oak
Bay Farm and relate historically to the Tod and Bowker Family's residence
in Oak Bay.
Samuel Maclure designed the gates in 1913, as part of a major renovation
and landscaping scheme for the Bowker farmhouse, commissioned by John Sylvester
Bowker Jr. The iron entrance gates and stone piers were moved to their
present location when the property was later subdivided in 1932.
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