In 1928, the North Bay Canadian Legion requested that the name of a short street, Kennedy Avenue, be changed to Memorial Drive. City council passed a resolution to that effect in September of that year. The British Empire Service League obtained permission to plant elm trees along the drive, each with a bronze plaque commemorating a fallen soldier.
In 1918, Canadians turned to the duty of commemorating the dead. Some promoted practical memorials like Roads of Remembrance. These linear tree-lined avenues had trees that were typically a single species, regularly spaced along each side of the avenue that would grow tall and stately. American elms were chosen for many of these avenues. A small plaque was used to assign a particular tree to a specific fallen soldier. In some cases, the next-of-kin was involved in purchasing the tree and/or plaque for the deceased soldier.
Roads of Remembrance were based on two symbol-laden images. The first was France’s tree-lined country avenues: “long straight roads, with large elms on either side, beautiful and useful, and loved by the Canadians overseas.” The second symbol was a living memorial: trees represented the victory of life over death. Memorial trees became living symbols of the sacrifices made in France and Belgium.
Memorial Drive has lost their trees to Dutch elm disease. The street was widened, sidewalks put in and the tree plaques were erected on the Vimy Ridge Memorial Wall.