Imagine houses filling this lovely spot, instead of the colourful botanical garden. That's what it came perilously close to being. Once the site of a golf club for the nearby Shaughnessy mansion district (see Neighbourhoods), the land that now holds VanDusen garden was slated to be turned into a residential housing development in the 1970s. Citizen activism spurred the city to buy the 55-acre piece of rolling ground, and it has since grown into a horticultural showpiece.