Savannah Historic Properties founder, Ron Melander coordinated with neighbors and the City of Savannah to plant six, twenty foot live oaks and three 30 gallon camellias in the 500 block of Tattnall Street on November 16th & 17th, 2022.

“As a 32 year downtown resident, I have long appreciated the beauty of Savannah’s signature live oaks which provide shady filtered light, much needed oxygen and beauty to our city. This was a way to fill in the blanks in the tree lawn on Tattnall Street and pull together a historic row of houses which had felt disjointed and now feel unified. I worked with all the neighbors to get a consensus and was fortunate to have Hester & Zipperer, the locally owned 100 year old landscape nursery, do the installation,” stated Melander 

“The four month process included hand selecting the trees from a regional nursery that specializes in live oak trees, calling into the 811 system for locating utilities, working with Traffic Engineering, and most importantly, Scott DeArmey of the City of Savannah Greenscapes Division. Securing Chris Zipperer’s team to install the large trees was a huge plus. Being able to give such a beautiful aesthetic where there was a glaring need for more tree canopy has really left me feeling proud that things worked out so well.” added Melander.

As a long time member of the Historic Savannah Foundation, the Savannah Downtown Neighborhood Association and many other local organizations, Ron has always cared about the city and wanted to do something tangible to “give back” to the community and say thanks.