132 years ago...
William Lemken brought a strange seedling to Herbert von King Park, in Brooklyn. The year was 1885 and the seedling was that of a Southern Magnolia Tree believed to have come all the way from North Carolina. An admirer of the magnolia’s quintessential white flowers, William planted the tree along the northern border of the park at 677 Lafayette Avenue. (What he didn’t realize, is that magnolias aren’t meant to survive in northern climates. It would be like planting a palm tree in Canada.)
Despite the 132 blistering winters in New York City, miraculously, the Magnolia survived! The tree was threatened again in the 1960’s when developers sought to purchase the plot of land it was planted on in order to build new housing and parking lots along the edge of the neighborhood park. Luckily, one activist named “Hattie Carthan” fought off the encroaching development and raised money to protect it. Hattie later became known as “the tree lady.”
In 1970 the tree became an official historic landmark in NYC, making it the first and only “living” landmark in the city.
If you’re ever in the neighborhood, make sure to check out both the Magnolia and the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, a nonprofit group with a focus on environmental sustainability and education.
Support Steem Park!
In an effort to build on Hattie’s incredible legacy of community empowerment and environmental awareness, our project Steem Park will be designing and building a community garden (just a few steps away) from the historic 132 year old Magnolia Tree. This project will be created, constructed and maintained with 100% STEEM, SBD and cryptocurrency donations! Your upvotes and donations will help make this community garden a reality. We have a bunch of prizes that you can purchase with Steem and SBD that will aid in our efforts to build this garden. One of our favorites is the “magnolia flower” (C)... an art piece that pays homage to the IRL tree and the people who saved it!
NOTE : 100% of the payout rewards from this post will go towards the realization of the Steem Park project. Thank you all so much for your support. Steem on!
Sources : Magnolia Flower . Hattie Carthan
