National AIDS Memorial Grove

The National AIDS Memorial Grove is marked by a seven-ton Sierra granite boulder at its main portal, which sits nestled within a quiet, ten-acre landscape of redwood trees, dogwood, and ferns. While many national memorials are built to commemorate wars that have already ended, this site was established in nineteen eighty-eight as an active response to an ongoing epidemic. At the time, a small group of San Francisco residents sought a way to process their collective grief and provide a sanctuary for those affected by the crisis.