Trees in Memoriam: Shelby Ave. Arboretum Honors

An arbore­tum like the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum is only pos­si­ble with gen­er­ous dona­tions and sup­port from our bene­fac­tors. The trees plant­ed in the arbore­tum hon­or many peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions local to Nashville whose kind­ness inspired oth­ers and grew into some­thing beautiful. 

Trees in Memoriam

Peo­ple have been plant­i­ng trees in mem­o­ry of a per­son or an event for cen­turies, and the tra­di­tion is a deeply mean­ing­ful ges­ture for so many to this day. While the exact ori­gins of the prac­tice are hard to trace, there are some good guess­es as to why it’s done. Trees have marked the slow and steady march of time for humans and ani­mals alike. Whether used as guide­posts or a way to mea­sure growth, trees have always rep­re­sent­ed life and per­se­ver­ance. When the mem­o­ry of a per­son doesn’t feel like enough to cel­e­brate their life, we turn to more spir­i­tu­al ges­tures. Unlike oth­er tra­di­tions sur­round­ing death, plant­i­ng memo­r­i­al trees has no spe­cif­ic reli­gious ori­gin. Peo­ple from across the world and through­out his­to­ry have plant­ed trees to mark impor­tant occa­sions or to com­mem­o­rate a lost loved one. Psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly speak­ing, some trees can live for hun­dreds of years, lit­er­al­ly liv­ing on and hold­ing the mem­o­ry of a per­son who is no longer with us. These trees can be a memo­r­i­al all their own, vis­it­ed by gen­er­a­tions of peo­ple wish­ing to hon­or the per­son (or peo­ple) for whom the tree was plant­ed. This gives mem­o­ry a phys­i­cal aspect and helps peo­ple com­part­men­tal­ize grief and make sense of loss. 

Using trees as memo­ri­als became espe­cial­ly impor­tant in Amer­i­can cul­ture after the tur­bu­lence of the Civ­il War. Memo­r­i­al trees were plant­ed in the 1860s and 1870s as the war con­clud­ed so the mem­o­ries of men who died in war could live on. This prac­tice was revi­tal­ized fol­low­ing World War I, both in Amer­i­ca and abroad. In a time when grief and loss were every­where, memo­r­i­al trees became totems for remem­brance. After that, memo­r­i­al trees and whole arbore­tums were often ded­i­cat­ed to men and women lost in mil­i­tary ser­vice, and the nation’s mil­i­tary has con­tin­ued to hon­or this tra­di­tion in mod­ern con­flicts. Many trees in the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum hon­or such fall­en heroes. 

In mod­ern times, we have con­tin­ued plant­i­ng trees to hon­or vet­er­ans and lost loved ones alike. To plant a tree in memo­ri­am is to cement a person’s life and lega­cy into the ground. At our arbore­tum, we have count­less trees ded­i­cat­ed to count­less peo­ple and caus­es that we’d like to share in hopes of spread­ing their mes­sage and inspir­ing oth­ers to do the same, sup­port­ing Nashville plant­i­ng projects like The Shel­by Ave. Arboretum. 

Shel­by Avenue Arboretum’s Many Benefactors

Friends of Shel­by Park and Bottoms

The Shel­by Park and Bot­toms is a park in the city of Nashville that spans over 1200 acres. This park is locat­ed at the east end of Shel­by Avenue and was estab­lished in the ear­ly 1900s as a pri­vate amuse­ment park meant to serve the grow­ing Nashville sub­urbs. The Friends of Shel­by Park and Bot­toms was estab­lished to help sup­port the park and pre­serve its his­tor­i­cal and nat­ur­al impor­tance while also build­ing and main­tain­ing ameni­ties for the thou­sands of peo­ple who vis­it the park each year. Their gen­er­ous con­tri­bu­tions of time and mon­ey into plant­i­ng trees for the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum project were incred­i­bly help­ful in the ear­ly days of the arbore­tum. Their con­tin­ued sup­port and com­mu­ni­ty fundrais­ing have great­ly ben­e­fit­ed the city and its residents. 

Lock­e­land Springs Neigh­bor­hood Association

Our bene­fac­tors at The Lock­e­land Springs Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion sup­port­ed the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum. Locat­ed at the south­ern end of the neigh­bor­hood, Shel­by Avenue was sup­port­ed by the Lock­e­land Springs neigh­bor­hood in the form of a dona­tion and vol­un­teer work.

Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck is a beloved Nashville gro­cery store that pro­vides nat­ur­al and local goods at three loca­tions in West Nashville, East Nashville, and the Gulch. Shel­by Ave. Arbore­tum owes many of its trees to sup­port from this local institution. 

Arbor Art Tree Care

Nashville tree care com­pa­ny Arbor Art Tree Care made dona­tions and pro­vid­ed sup­port to the arbore­tum. Their arborists were help­ful dur­ing the plant­i­ng process and con­tin­ue to sup­port the project by help­ing with main­te­nance and prun­ing through­out the year. 

There are a num­ber of oth­er busi­ness­es and local donors to whom we owe thanks for get­ting this arbore­tum plant­ed. We would be remiss not to acknowl­edge the sup­port and dona­tions from local insti­tu­tions like Nashville Elec­tric Ser­vices, Metro Nashville Tree Bank Funds, Bartlett Tree Experts, Hale and Hines Nurs­ery, Nashville Nurs­ery and Land­scape Sup­ply, The David­son Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office, Roy’s Meat Ser­vice, and GoEpps. With­out these bene­fac­tors, The Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum would not exist to serve the peo­ple of Nashville. 

Remem­ber­ing Mar­tin and Bet­ty Brown

The Brown Fam­i­ly is Shel­by Avenue Arboretum’s largest pri­vate donor, and this sup­port was made in lov­ing mem­o­ry of Mar­tin and Bet­ty Brown, two Nashville icons. Mar­tin and Bet­ty were both notable phil­an­thropists who inspired a new gen­er­a­tion of entre­pre­neurs and envi­ron­men­tal­ists to invest in the beau­ty of Nashville. Mar­tin, the CEO of Jack Daniel’s dis­tillery, and his wife Bet­ty lived in Nashville for decades and were always sup­port­ing the com­mu­ni­ty with unique endeav­ors aimed at doing more than just pro­vid­ing mon­ey for char­i­ta­ble caus­es. After a tor­na­do in 1998 dam­aged and downed thou­sands of trees, Bet­ty Brown estab­lished the orga­ni­za­tion ReLeaf Nashville, which was respon­si­ble for plant­i­ng thou­sands of new trees in an effort to restore Nashville’s canopy. Each year since 2002, ReLeaf vol­un­teers gath­er short­ly before Thanks­giv­ing to car­ry on this lega­cy and plant new trees for the city of Nashville and sur­round­ing areas in Ten­nessee. Mar­tin and Bet­ty Brown left Nashville with a lega­cy of trees, and it’s only fit­ting that so many of the trees in the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum were plant­ed in their hon­or and as a result of their family’s con­tin­ued gen­eros­i­ty after their pass­ing. The Browns had count­less gar­dens, both on their prop­er­ty and through­out the city, all ben­e­fit­ting from Betty’s green thumb and love for nature. The Browns were heav­i­ly com­mit­ted to nature and preser­va­tion, and their lega­cy con­tin­ues to regreen Nashville and oth­er areas of the south­east Unit­ed States. Their com­mit­ment to the world they occu­pied is a mar­vel and an inspi­ra­tion to count­less Nashville res­i­dents. Their lega­cy lives on in the trees plant­ed here at the arbore­tum and across the city. 

Hav­ing a Tree Plant­ed in Memoriam

The Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum is still grow­ing, and the project is always open to more dona­tions and sup­port from vol­un­teers. If you’d like to have a tree plant­ed in memo­ri­am at the arbore­tum, we would love to talk. Whether you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about hav­ing a tree plant­ed in the arbore­tum or pur­chas­ing a tree to plant your­self to hon­or a loved one or com­mem­o­rate an event, we’d love to help. By pur­chas­ing trees from the Nashville Tree Con­ser­va­tion Corps, you sup­port the pro­gram as a whole and the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum, which is a project of the NTCC. Bring a new tree into the city of Nashville and hon­or a loved one at the same time. When you pur­chase a tree from us, you can count on a qual­i­ty tree, easy deliv­ery, and always avail­able sup­port to make sure that tree and its lega­cy live on. 

What Is a Good Tree for a Memo­r­i­al? Orna­men­tal trees like cher­ry trees and Japan­ese maples are both good picks for their beau­ti­ful foliage, but you need to also con­sid­er the life expectan­cy of the tree you’re plant­i­ng. Cher­ry trees don’t live par­tic­u­lar­ly long, usu­al­ly around 40 years in good con­di­tions. On the oth­er hand, while oaks or maples may not have beau­ti­ful buds, they do live much longer. There’s no wrong tree to hon­or a per­son you love, and we’ve got plen­ty of options that can suit your needs. Feel free to ask when you’re mak­ing a pur­chase, or give us a call if you need some advice.

Shel­by Avenue Remembers

The Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum owes its suc­cess to each and every donor, both big and small. Indi­vid­ual pri­vate dona­tions and sup­port from local busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions were crit­i­cal in mak­ing our arbore­tum what it is. We hope to hon­or the peo­ple for whom these trees were plant­ed in memo­ri­am and con­tin­ue the lega­cy of each indi­vid­ual and group our trees were plant­ed to hon­or. If you’re look­ing to learn more about the project or sup­port us by donat­ing a tree in someone’s hon­or, give us a call today.