The historic 1914 Pump House is located in the Detroit River at Langlois Avenue and Riverside Drive in Windsor and was officially known as the Offshore Water Intake Building. It was originally designed by the architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls as part of the municipal water works system in 1914. Windsor experienced a major fire in 1871 which destroyed three blocks of downtown Windsor and resulted in a new municipal water system with the later addition of the 1914 Pump house.

 

In 2001, the City of Windsor received a Human Resources Development Canada grant to restore the pump house as the first of five beacons to mark locations within the riverfront park system. Named the Dawn Beacon, this historic pumphouse powers the irrigation system for the park and is a location for interpretive signs explaining the heritage and environmental significance of the area.

 

The park was named after Joan and Cliff Hatch, noted philanthropists. It is located in one of the historically significant areas along the Detroit River which was the original home to the Ottawa First Nation. It was abandoned by the Ottawas around 1730.

 

By the middle of the 18th century, the French were actively encouraging settlement in this area. By 1760, the British had taken over and the United Empire Loyalists arrived in 1780. Locally the area became known as the CNR lands because the Great Western Railway was bought out by the Canadian National Railway in 1923.