Jacksonville Tree Project

11/17/2023

Another perfect tree planting day. Hope everyone enjoys all the new additions to our tree canopy! Check them out as you’re traveling through the historic neighborhoods of Jacksonville. A huge thanks to all of the tickets purchasers for the annual Jacksonville Night at Busch Stadium Cardinals game and private donors who made all of this possible! 🌳

11/15/2023

The fall planting continues! Dropping more photos from today’s work. Thanks Kyle, Jamie and Pat Ward for your time and effort this fall. The new trees immediately add beauty to Jacksonville’s historic neighborhoods. 🍁

11/13/2023

What a beautiful time of the year! The historic, ISD campus is home to 2 more new trees! Thank you Superintendent Julee Nist for allowing us to plant trees over the years. As you drive or walk by ISD or nearby Duncan Park, take a minute and enjoy the fall colors! 🍁

11/10/2023

Not 1, not 2 but TWENTY new trees will be popping up all over town soon! Here are 3 newly planted trees downtown near Hamilton’s. The trees will share the space with the newly installed benches provided by Marcy Patterson and the Jacksonville Kiwanis Club. Thank you John Green and Pat Ward for coordinating the planting. Downtown is looking beautiful!
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09/25/2023

Sweet story about Jacksonville’s “Elm City” past and the love of trees! Look forward to seeing it in the museum. Thanks Nick S. Little for sharing.

Last week Jacksonville Area Museum board member Nick Little, Board Chairman Allan Worrell, and Museum Manager McKenna Servis traveled to the home of Ms. Betty (Query) Smith to pick up the newest item in the museums vast collection!

Nicknamed “Elm City”, Jacksonville was famous for its large number of elm trees within its limits. However, by the 1950s many of Jacksonville’s famous trees had been devastated by Dutch Elm disease which resulted in many of the elm trees dying and subsequently cut down.

Betty remembers the Elm tree that stood in her front yard as she grew up in Jacksonville. After Dutch Elm disease had ravaged through the elm tree population in Jacksonville, the city had come to remove the tree that had stood for so long in Betty’s front yard. Her father asked the city employees removing the tree to save him a slab of the tree which he then had turned into a coffee table. The coffee table has moved with Betty through her life and it is now a prized piece of the museums collection.

Photo is of McKenna Servis, Betty Smith, and Nick Little standing with the coffee table before bringing it back to Jacksonville, taken by Allan Worrell.

To read more about Jacksonville as Elm City see “The Way We Were Volume I” by Greg Olson. Books are available at Our Town Books in Jacksonville.

09/15/2023

Beautiful day on the Jacksonville Square. It’s great to see trees maturing in Central Park! 11-15-23 🌳

08/24/2023

A shaded yard/neighborhood/city is important when the temp/humidity index is 113°!

The street trees you plant today will provide shade, beauty, and protection in the coming years for countless people. Reach out to your neighbors or city council members about planting them!

07/08/2023

Then and Now. More than a week later, massive trees are still down all over town. The recent storm destroyed many of the historic oak trees at the former appropriately named Oak Lawn Sanitarium on E. Morton (now Water’s Edge Winery). Oak Lawn operated from its wooded, hilltop location on the eastern edge of Jacksonville from 1872-1969. The 60 acre “heaviest, wooded lawn in America” provided a beautiful, healthy backdrop for patients recovering from TB and other ailments. The original building, modeled after a Scottish abbey, was demolished in 1981. 7-8-23.

06/30/2023

Treemageddon 2023. Wind damage from yesterday’s storm is widespread and affected most areas of town. The more you drive around, the more down/damaged trees that you see. The old MacMurray campus area was hit especially hard and the college’s historic brick marker on E. State was damaged. Hopefully, it will be repaired. 6-30-23.

06/29/2023

Major tree damage in Community Park, the Historic District and throughout Jacksonville today. Hate to see our beautiful, tree-filled parks and neighborhoods so destroyed. Both Community and Nichols Parks have suffered significant storm related tree losses over the last few years. This is why we plant new trees in Jacksonville every year. Be safe everyone 6-29-23.🌳

05/13/2023

NEW TREES 🌳 NEW TREES 🌳 NEW TREES 🌳
We’re restoring our tree canopy block by block. Here are a few 📸 of some of the newly planted trees. More to follow soon! As summer approaches and we spend more time outdoors, trees provide the shade we so desperately need. A huge thank you to those who made donations including every Cardinal fan who purchased tickets to Jacksonville Night at Busch Stadium last year. Thanks also to Pat Ward for sharing his time and expertise again this year. Enjoy the new trees and thanks for making our city greener and more walkable! 5-13-23.

05/07/2023

Diamond Grove on a beautiful spring day. Thank you cemetery staff for taking such good care of the grounds and the young trees! We appreciate your efforts.