Our History

The history of Owl’s Hill began in 1959 when Huldah (Cheek) Sharp gave her childhood home, Cheekwood, to the newly formed Tennessee Botanical Gardens and Fine Arts Center, a private nonprofit corporation. Huldah and Walter Sharp purchased a 140-acre farm from the Roy Elam family and began constructing the scenic stone walls we see today at the same time they were building their new home on the side of a hill overlooking their newly purchased farmland. Shortly after completion, the Sharps were outside one night and could hear a Great Horned Owl calling from the ridge. They remarked that they must have built their home on the owl’s hill and began calling their property Owl’s Hill Farm.

After Walter's unexpected death, Huldah placed restrictive covenants on the property and sold it the University of Tennessee Nashville in 1972 to be used for research and to be maintained as a nature preserve.  In 1983 UT Nashville conveyed the property to then Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art. In 1988, Huldah Sharp’s dream of a nature sanctuary started down the long road to reality when Cheekwood hired a full time naturalist to oversee the creation of a wildlife habitat preserve, establish education programming, undertake conservation projects, correct erosion problems and make the now 120-acre site available for research. The new facility was christened Owl’s Hill Nature Center. The caretakers cottage that had originally been a hay barn was turned into a Visitor Center.

Since there was only one employee and financial support was limited to interest on a small endowment, progress was slow but steady. Cheekwood provided administrative support but financially, Owl’s Hill was on its own. In 1991 a Boy Scout appeared in search of an Eagle Service Project. His project was removing wire fencing from a scenic wooded area. The restoration had begun. Since then, more than 130 Eagle Service Projects have helped transform the neglected, overgrown cattle farm into a vibrant wildlife sanctuary.

In the spring of 2007, the Board of Trustees of the Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art voted to turn over all Owl's Hill assets to a newly created nonprofit organization. Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary became a completely independent non-profit by spring of 2007. The Nature Sanctuary now encompasses 300+ acres and is a protected home for more than 2,000 species of native flora and fauna.

Past Chairs

Mary Brockman, 2011-2012

Joe Diehl, 2010-2011
Lee Peterseim, 2007-2008; 2009-2010
Carl Zimmerman, 2008-2009

Our Staff