Haven Elm Marker (Class of 1867 Memorial)

Unknown
Boulder 1867 (now gone), granite block 1907; Granite; Artifact, Memorial
Central Campus; West side of Hatcher South

The memorial began with a boulder obtained by the Class of 1867 while on a senior geological field trip. Led by Professor Alexander Winchell, the boulder was among many items found on the north shore of Lake Superior and brought to Ann Arbor. The class adopted it as their memorial. The ’67 stone wandered around campus until 1900 when it was placed at the base of an elm tree, near the southwest corner of the south wing of old University Hall (about where the south end of Angell Hall is now). The elm tree was thereupon named the Haven Elm in honor of Erastus Otis Haven, who was president of the university at the time the Class of 1867 was in school. At their 40th reunion in 1907, the class decided to place their boulder in a more proper setting and obtained a large cube of granite into which was carved “Haven Elm” on one side, and “Class of 1867” on the other. The tree and its marker survived the construction of Angell Hall in 1924, and for the next twenty-five years stood in the narrow space between University Hall and Angell Hall (see the second thumbnail). When University Hall was demolished in 1950, the elm and boulder were apparently lost; the granite block alone survives. The Haven Elm is often confused with the Class of 1869 elm (Class of 1869 Memorial) which was actually an entirely different tree marked by its own boulder. That tree is gone now, too, but its boulder remains.