The U of M’s ‘Avenue of Elms’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/12/2022 (1034 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is home to hundreds of war memorials of all shapes and sizes, but few are living memorials such as the elms that line Chancellor Matheson Road on the University of Manitoba campus.

On Arbor Day, May 14, 1923, 200 American elm trees were planted along the narrow dirt road that led from Pembina Highway to the Manitoba Agricultural College’s administration building. They were planted to commemorate the 52 men associated with the college who died in the First World War and complemented five trees planted in 1915 at the newly opened campus by five teachers taking home economics courses.

Prof. F. W. Broderick of the horticultural department oversaw the 50 people who came to the Arbor Day planting. They were divided into six teams, one made up of provincial agricultural employees, one of students, two of alumni and three of faculty members.

Six months later, on Remembrance Day 1923, the trees and a granite memorial were dedicated at a ceremony led by Brig.-Gen. H. M. Dyer of Minnedosa. Aside from being a highly decorated and respected soldier, Dyer was the first chair of the board of regents of the Manitoba Agricultural College.

The memorial reads: “In faith and gratitude this Avenue of Elms is dedicated as a living memorial to the men of M.A.C. who laid down their lives in the cause of freedom.” It also contains an excerpt from John Milton’s poem, Samson Agonistes: “Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail — nothing but well and fair, and what may quiet us in a death so noble.”

“Avenue of Elms” became a nickname for what was a numbered government road without a formal name. It wasn’t until the 1950s that “Matheson Road” can be found on university maps and was used in the daily and university newspapers.

A City of Winnipeg legal notice in a May 1975 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press declared that the name Matheson Road, or road number 9899, had been legally changed to Chancellor Matheson Road. (Rev. Samuel Matheson was chancellor of the University of Manitoba from 1908 to 1934.)

In the fall of 1960, the roadway was widened and paved and its status as a main entryway into the university campus, which had long been lost to the more convenient University Crescent, was restored.

The 1960s were a period of decline for the stately elms.

In the summer of 1964, 81 trees were found to be suffering from an unknown disease and two died. Several were removed for the Pan Am Stadium, now University Stadium, constructed in 1966-67. Fifteen more were removed and relocated to the quadrangle next to the Administration building in 1969 to make way for a physical education complex.

More trees have been lost in subsequent decades due to Dutch elm disease, new campus developments, and old age.

In June 2014, the University of Manitoba planted 100 new elms along Chancellor Matheson Drive to preserve what is still one of Canada’s largest living war memorials.