PLACES YOU
CAN VISIT:
Thousands ot visitors from miles around come to Memorial Garden each year during the blooming sea¬
son. Over to. 000 bulbs were planted this year, and many varieties ot tlowenng trees are represented.
A Beauty Spot In
Downtown Concord
The Memorial Garden is especially
colorful in spring.
tty SIIEItltY AUSTIN
While looking through some litera¬
ture on the history of Cabarrus County.-
hoping to find something about the
background of the First Presbyterian
Church’s Memorial Garden. I came
across a yellowed little pamphlet. "In
those days." it began, "there were Pres¬
byterians in Concord." I liked that. Like
Genesis 6:4: ". . . there were giants in
the earth in those days." it had an epic
ring to it. I could picture a bearded old
bard, strumming up his lyre, getting
warmed up for a tale w hich would be
long in the telling.
"In those days, there were Pres¬
byterians in Concord." Talk about un¬
derstatement. We know that the early
settlers, many, perhaps most, of them
Presbyterian, laid the very' foundations
for this town. In the First Presbyterian
Church's Memorial Garden the evi¬
dence of the faith that upheld the peo¬
ple of this town is etched in stone and
renewed with the seasons.
The First Presbyterian Church’s pres¬
ent building, which has been named
one of the finest examples of Colonial
architecture in the country, is something
to see in its own right. It is situated un¬
der the old oaks and among the stately
homes of North Union Street. A cou¬
ple of blocks away on Spring Street, in
1804. the first Presbyterians built a forty
foot long log church in the shape of a
cross. Here they buried their first dead,
and here, with the help of a dedicated
few of their twentieth century progeny
they have left their finest legacy.
The Cemetery Transformed
The old church is long since gone
and so is the ragged, overgrown grave¬
yard that was once an eyesore to down¬
town Concord, rather than its main
beauty spot. The transformation of just
another cemetery into a little Eden be¬
gan about 1930 when Mrs. Sallie Phifer
Williamson, whose mother was buried
there, became disgruntled with the poor
condition of the place. With the help of
landscape architect Clarence Leeman of
Charlotte, she set about making the
cemetery into a memorial garden, and
was so successful that the practice be¬
gan to spread all over the country, in
part because it provided much-needed
jobs in the Depression era.
The Memorial Garden is maintained
through a trust left by the Williamson
family and has been, for many years, a
labor of love of Aaron Jones Yorke III.
who was an elder in the church, and his
wife. Martha Best Yorke. who has man¬
aged and nurtured the garden since her
husband’s death in 1980.
It is as a garden, a place meticulously
groomed and planted that the Memorial
Garden first strikes the visitor. Over ten
thousand bulbs were planted this year
and many varieties of (lowering trees in¬
digenous to North Carolina are repre¬
sented. But even in the dead of winter,
this bird sanctuary1 is a little paradise of
stone pathways and terraces, fountains
and pools, shaded walks beneath old
magnolias, and little statues in unex¬
pected places. Just inside the entrance,
a stone baby sits at the base of a hugh
oak. nestled within its roots. At the top
Even in the dead of winter this is a bit ot paradise
. . . with little statues In uneipected places. Just
inside the entrance a stone baby sits at the base of
a huge oak.
THE state
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