Tucson Lodge #4, F&AM

Tucson's First Masonic Lodge

ROSE MEMORIAL GARDEN      by   Graham Davey

With the sale of the Lodge eminent and loosing the roses to a new owner a discussion concerning their future was held around a table in the Lodge.

Ron and Linda Hill had been nurturing these roses over a period of time. This was a labor of love for them as roses dominate their garden and they saw a way of providing pleasant decoration for the Lodge building by cultivating a Memorial Rose Garden with roses dedicated to Masons that have passed..

The challenge was who had the room in their yard to dedicate to the Memorial Garden. As our garden has the space, even a north facing side of the building to provide shade during our hot summers, I volunteered to move them.

Some of the roses had already been moved or had perished, there were eight left.  Digging them out of the pebble filled soil proved very challenging, and finding the identification as to what type of rose they were, and to whom they were dedicated proved difficult. However as we dug dedication plaques and some rose identification plates were found. With this information and confirmation from the Hills I was able to piece together a new Memorial Garden now located at our home.

One rose did not transfer and had to be replaced, a dedication plaque was made for one, but in all the transfer was very successful as illustrated by the photographs.

One rose would not fit in the shade of the house so I potted it and placed it with four other roses already in our garden in the shade of trees. Each of the roses has the original dedication plaque.  Running your Mouse-cursor over the photos will identify each photo.

Click on Thumbnail to see larger photo or view as a slide show. (Photos taken by Graham Davey)

Fig  1,View of the garden.

Fig  2,Roy Ives      1910-2000Unknown

Fig  3,James L Draper    1920-2001Gemini

Fig  4,Wesley C Smith  1921-2001Sentimental

Fig  5,Bobby Ragsdale Jr      1944-2002Oregold

Fig  6, R Paul Ragsdale        1923-1988Remember Me

Fig  7,Roger H Zollman  1953-1988Love and Peace

Fig  8,Harold W Gross  1919-1998Brandy

Fig  9,Dr Douglas R Eisenstein      1953-2002Love

Rose Memorial Garden

Fig. 1   Fig. 2

        

Fig. 3     Fig. 4

Fig. 5    Fig. 6

Fig. 7   Fig. 8

Fig. 9