Nashville’s memorial garden honoring more than 200 deceased children will finally be redesigned

A Nashville memorial garden is getting a nearly $1.7 million upgrade from the Centennial Park Conservancy. The Children’s Memory Garden honors local youth who lost their lives to violence.

Damon Mitchell WPLN News

The names of youth murder victims are carved into the pavement of the Children’s Memory Garden.

The little-known garden is tucked away under a line of trees near the edge of Centennial Park. It’s been maintained by a victim’s advocacy nonprofit, You Have The Power, since the mid-1990s.

The names of more than 200 deceased children are carved into the garden’s brick-built pavement.

“The one thing they have in common is that they’re children,” says Andrea Conte, the founder of the advocacy group. “We literally are talking about babies, toddlers, all the way up to teenagers.”

In recent years, some of the youth have had their stories told in memory books. The revitalized memorial will help bring those stories to a larger audience.

The current garden attracts unintended rain water on its stone markers and has limited access, especially for residents and visitors with disabilities. Now, the construction project will help address those issues. It breaks ground on Nov. 13.