The Bicentennial Oak near Garland Hall was the only tree on Vanderbilt’s campus known to predate the university; it grew in stature as the Vanderbilt campus grew around it. Described as a “living cathedral,” the bur oak had a trunk five feet in diameter and a crown 100 feet wide. Before it fell in November 2022 from age-related decay, many members of the Vanderbilt community sat beneath it on sunny spring days, reading books, eating lunch, or waiting and watching as a current love strolled over.
Wood from the oak was salvaged and lives on in furniture made by local custom carpentry shop Good Wood Nashville. Most recently, the storied tree’s history has been honored in end-grain relief prints made by Canadian artist and woodworker Marko Barakoski, with help from Vanderbilt art students. The prints taken from the end grain expose the growth rings of this mammoth landmark, and, if alumni look closely, they may see themselves among those rings, on a sunny spring day long ago.
—Photos by John Russell
