Lake Logan was reclaimed in the early 20th century. Originally an inlet of the
Otago Harbour called Pelichet Bay, it frequently silted up, especially after a
causeway was built to allow for the
South Island Main Trunk Railway between Dunedin and
Port Chalmers. Reclamation began in 1913 and continued after
World War I, at which time the area was linked with the central city by a tree-lined boulevard, Anzac Avenue, leading straight to
Anzac Square and the
Dunedin Railway Station. The reclaimed land was turned into a park and was used as the site of the
1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition. For many years the
Dunedin Public Art Gallery stood in one of the buildings constructed for that exhibition. This building and the Otago Lawn Tennis Association building (formerly the aquarium) are all that remains of the exhibition buildings. Shortly after the exhibition the reclaimed land was converted into playing fields and now goes by the name of
Logan Park. The park's location close to the city's two tertiary institutions (Otago Polytechnic and the
University of Otago — especially its Dunedin College of Education) and one of the city's larger high schools makes it an important and heavily used venue. The building of the
Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza led to traffic being diverted from Anzac Avenue (by that time part of
SH 88. The main vehicular access to Logan Park is from the streets surrounding the Polytechnic and College of Education, and via a
feeder road from the realigned SH 88, which skirts the harbour side of the Forsyth Barr Stadium on its path from Dunedin to
Port Chalmers. The new artificial field known as 'Logan Park Turf', was officially opened by Columbia international
Juan Pablo Ángel in November 2019. ==See also==