UBC campus expands

As the campus developed, particularly during the boom of 1925, several buildings were constructed upon future roads, including the temporary mechanical buildings that happen to still stand today. An aerial tramway and light rail system carried granite blocks needed for building the main library. The railway, which crossed the botanical garden site, was abandoned after the library’s completion. Davidson removed the banked railbed at great cost and used leftover stone from the library to build an alpine garden along West Mall. This alpine garden later became home to plants that Davidson and his colleagues collected from the Garibaldi region.

A proposed division between the horticultural and botanical gardens, to have been created by an extension of 10th Avenue to Marine Drive, was never completed. In 1926, UBC president Leonard Klinck told Davidson that he could consider the area north of the garden a permanent part of the arboretum. Over $2,300 (about $30,000 in 2006 dollars) and a great deal of labour went into creating and maintaining these spaces. The space reserved for 10th Avenue became a weedy wasteland and when the horticulture department asked for permission to temporarily grow iris bulbs in the area, Davidson agreed as long as they promised to move out when the botanical garden needed the space (PDF, 98 KB).