Memorial & Commemorative Trees at the University of Virginia

Memorial & Commemorative Trees at the University of Virginia

In honor of Alden Hopkins

Tree species:
	Cornus florida 'rubra'
Common name:
	Pink Flowering Dogwood (2)
Location:
	Pavilion Garden VIII
Date planted:
	2002

In 1948, the University of Virginia turned to the Garden Club of Virginia for assistance in restoring its Pavilion Gardens. The Garden Club hired Alden Hopkins, resident landscape architect for Colonial Williamsburg, to prepare a master plan for all ten gardens. He prepared plans and oversaw the refurbishment of the West Pavilion Gardens.

Hopkins had begun the drawings for the east gardens when he died suddenly. His assistant at Colonial Williamsburg, Donald H. Parker, completed the project in conjunction with Ralph E. Griswold.

Alden Hopkins graduated from the Harvard School of Design, won the Prix de Rome and studied for three years at the American Academy in Rome under a Garden Club of America fellowship. After World War II, he became the first resident landscape architect at Colonial Williamsburg as well as the primary consultant to the Garden Club of Virginia. By the time of his sudden and untimely death in 1960, he had worked on more than 140 projects, including the restoration plans for the Adam Thoroughgood House, Woodlawn Plantation, Hampton and Gunston Hall. The University of Virginia gardens were his largest commission.

(From "Preserving Jefferson's Garden University" by Mary V. Hughes.)