This woman inspired a landmark Hamilton park nearly 60 years ago. Her husband's name was credited, until now

John Parker remembers his mother, Jennie Florence Parker, drawing up the plans for what is now Hamilton's Confederation Park on a piece of bristol board around 1960.

The idea for the park was sparked by summers spent with John and his 10 siblings, who at one point lived by the lake in a two-storey house with no indoor plumbing, "three to four" to a bed.

"When we would graduate from our school end-of-year, we went swimming in Lake Ontario... so she thought it was a great place for a park," said John, now 78. 

One of Jennie's sons took her bristol board plans to then-mayor Lloyd Jackson's house. "[Council] liked the idea and it came to fruition," John said. The park opened a few years later.

Jennie died in 1965, two years before the city unveiled a plaque to honour the park's origins at Wild Waterworks, outside the wave pool on a muggy summer day.

But it was a different time, John said. His mother was credited as Mrs. Stanley Parker, her husband's name. 

"I think it was the temperature of the time," he said. "Women were not recognized for their contributions the way are today."

The city is "righting a wrong" now with the opening of the new Jennie Florence Parker Sports Complex in Confederation Park, Mayor Andrea Horwath told CBC Hamilton.

The city held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the complex on Thursday.

"We're in a different time now, and we can take the time and space necessary to celebrate women who have contributed in in big ways to our city," she said. 

'She would be so proud': son 

After the ribbon cutting, elected officials, Jennie's extended family and a Hamilton cricket team all gathered to celebrate her and the complex.

"She would be so proud," John said. "I'm sure she would breakdown and cry when she saw this and the recognition of her contribution." 

John and his 89-year-old brother Allan are Jennie's only remaining children. John described his mother as someone who "never complained, not once" and the kind of person who, "if she had something she wanted to move forward, she would do it." She was also a volunteer with the Red Cross and president of the Hamilton Women's Civic Club, he said.   ​​

"I never expected something of this magnitude for my mother," Allan said.

The new sports complex has a cricket pitch, an accessible playground, decked out with a zip line, pickleball courts and a field house for events. 

It was an initiative pushed forward by former Ward 5 Coun. Chad Collins, now the Hamilton East—Stoney Creek Member of Parliament.

It sits on land that was originally an irregularly used campground that Collins began turning into a park during his time as councillor. 

"Jennie Parker is someone who had the idea decades ago to create a waterfront park for all Hamiltonians. She took that idea to elected representatives of the day and they ran with that idea," he said on Thursday.

High hopes for new cricket pitch

One of the most celebrated parts of the new park is the cricket pitch. 

Naseer Malik, with the Hamilton and District Cricket League, said he suggested adding a cricket field to Confederation Park in 2008. 

Now he believes the new field will bring in international leagues to play the growing sport here in Hamilton. 

"[The field] is close to the U.S. border, is on the QEW... and this facility is [at an] international level," he said. 

Malik said he believes the field will bring in teams from the states and from other countries, like England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.