When Grand Boulevard was first staked out in 1895 all of the residential dreams of shady urban grandeur were somewhere in the future because the place was a big flat empty hayfield.
Shortly after this photo was taken in 1900 however, there were 300 trees planted to transform the stark allotment into a majestic neighborhood.
Had nature taken its course this part of town would be much more forested today.
But in 1977 a tornado chose this concourse for one of its quick visits to Shelby. So, many of the original trees are gone, and quite a few of the ones shading the Boulevard today are second plantings.
(Image from the collection of the Shelby Museum of History.)
