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.

Read more about this topic:  U Of S Lands South Management Area, Saskatoon

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.
    Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)

    Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)