U of S Lands South Management Area, Saskatoon - History

History

The land for the U of S Lands South Management Area was set aside for the University of Saskatchewan upon its creation in 1907. The city had planned to build a hospital at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and College Drive, going so far as to dig for the basements. However, the project was cancelled due to lack of funding. The excavations stood open for decades until a tragic incident forced the city to fill them in.

In 1931, the provincially-funded School for the Deaf was opened. The building was renamed the R.J.D. Williams Building in 1982, after the school's longtime Dean of Residence. When deaf children were integrated into the regular school system in 1990, the School for the Deaf closed and the building was sold to the university.

Griffiths Stadium is a football playing field belonging to the University of Saskatchewan. The original stadium was located on the corner of Cumberland Avenue and College Drive, and opened in 1936. It was financed by donations from students, alumni, faculty and the business community. Students helped build the stadium as well, providing them income during the Great Depression. The desire for a new stadium and the widening of College Drive led to the construction of the current stadium a few hundred metres east of the original site. It opened on June 23, 1967. Improvements were made to the stadium prior to the 1989 Jeux Canada Games, and again in 2006 prior to hosting the Vanier Cup.

The McEown Park residence complex was opened on October 2, 1970. Three high-rise buildings were initially built: 14-storey Seager Wheeler Hall housed single students living in small groups; 11-storey Assiniboine Hall housed married students without children and single students with shared accommodation; and 9-storey Souris Hall housed married students with children. A fourth tower, Wollaston Hall, was added in 1976.

The Saskatoon Field House, a city-operated athletic facility, was officially opened on December 28, 1981.

Stadium Parkade was built over the former "Z lot" parking area to relieve parking pressure at the university campus. It was completed in 2004.

In 2006, the university began planning for the College Quarter, an expansion to the campus that would use up most of the remaining land in the South Management Area. In 2008, the university decided to partner with a private developer to build 200 student housing units on the land north of McEown Park. Saskatoon-based Meridian Development Corp., noted for its redevelopment of the downtown King George Hotel, originally planned to have the new townhouse residences completed for occupancy by the fall of 2010. However, the College Quarter master plan was not approved until December 2009, and the delay has moved the completion date of the residences to the fall of 2011.