St. Rose Beach, was assembled in a piecemeal, somewhat tentative fashion over a five year period between 1967 and 1975. Opened during Canada's Centennial in 1967, it was just five years later, in 1972, that a small but determined group of City power brokers began quietly working behind the scenes to convert St. Rose Beach into a municipal landfill site. Thankfully, a combination of serious environmental concerns and strong Department of Parks and Recreation resistance stopped this proposal.
Nevertheless, during the summer of 1975 the City sent mixed signals about the future of St. Rose Beach. The City allowed the site to be used as a storage yard while a major construction project in the area of Rose Avenue and Wyandotte Street was being carried out. For the most part, the prolonged and heavy construction traffic at the site totally destroyed the park's turf, and the visual spectre left behind for Windsorites was decidedly barren and unappealing.
A massive flood at St. Rose Beach just one year later prompted the City to re-evaluate its long range plans for the site. Acting quickly and decisively, a breakwall was installed along the shoreline to protect the park from high water. Later, the site was totally re-turfed, which helped restore the park to its pre-construction condition. Three years later, in 1979, the City made its long term intentions clear, installing a reinforced steel seawall in the eastern portion of the park and providing a badly needed storm sewer outwall at St. Rose Beach. The $22,000 price tag for these improvements was subsidized in part by a $10,000 grant from the Ministry of Natural Resources. There is still one private water lot in the middle of the park's shoreline.
Currently, St. Rose Beach is a passive waterfront park, appropriately equipped with several park benches for those wishing to relax and enjoy a quiet afternoon away from the hustle and bustle of urban life.
In 2000-2001, improvements were made to the shoreline to enhance the fish habitat and protect the shoreline to conform to the hydraulic action by the river.