Which site in Nuuanu did Joni Mitchell write about in her hit song "Big Yellow Taxi"?

"They paved paradise, put up a parking lot. With a pink hotel …" — a description of the Royal Hawaiian.

"They took all the trees, put ’em in a tree museum. And they charge the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em."

Where is the tree museum? Mitchell was referring to Nuuanu’s Foster Botanical Gardens.

Several people played a role in creating Foster Botanical Gardens. William Hillebrand, the chief physician at Queen’s Hospital, started the garden in 1853 on land he bought from Queen Kalama. He moved to Germany 30 years later and sold the property to Thomas and Mary Foster in 1884.

Thomas was a shipbuilder and founded Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co. In 1929 it gave birth to Inter-Island Airways, now called Hawaiian Airlines.

When Mary Foster died in 1930, the 5.5-acre site was given to the city as a public garden. Foster Gardens was then managed by the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association, and Harold Lyon was its first director. Over a span of 27 years, Lyon introduced 10,000 new kinds of trees and plants to Hawaii. Of the 100 exceptional trees found in Hawaii, Foster Botanical Gardens is home to 25 of them.

Mary Foster had an even more famous sister. Mary Elizabeth Mikahala Robinson Foster was the older sister of Victoria Ward. Their mother was alii from Maui.

Foster was a close friend of Queen Liliuokalani. The Liliuokalani Botanic Garden was just mauka of Foster’s home on land that is now bisected by the H-1 freeway. Waikahalulu Falls on Nuuanu Stream was a favorite place for the queen to rest, bathe and picnic.

Buddhism is well known and regarded in Hawaii today, but 100 years ago that wasn’t the case. Sometimes it takes an outsider to bridge the cultural gap. In the case of Buddhism in Hawaii, that person was Mary Foster.

Foster became a devout Buddhist after the death of her husband in 1889. Burdened with grief, she found no relief from her Christian background. Then she met Anagarika Dharmapala, a Buddhist man visiting from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He taught her meditation, and her grief and anger soon passed. Buddhism touched her in a way that Christianity had not.

Dharmapala donated a bodhi tree to Foster Gardens with an extraordinary lineage. It was a cutting from a bodhi tree in Ceylon that was planted in 288 B.C. That tree was propagated, it is said, from the Indian bodhi tree that Buddha sat under until he became enlightened. "Buddha" means "enlightened one."

Foster helped the local Buddhist hongwanji financially and encouraged her good friend Queen Liliuokalani to attend a service at the new temple on Fort and Kukui streets in 1901. Her attendance was noted by newspapers all over the world and conferred a great deal of acceptance to the hongwanji.

Foster also donated money and land adjacent to her home for construction of a new temple and high school, the Hongwanji Mission School, near Fort (now Pali Highway) and School streets.

It’s possible that Foster is more famous today in Sri Lanka than Hawaii. She became a benefactor to the Maha Bodhi Society there. Schools, temples, monasteries, medical clinics and many other organizations were founded with her support, which totaled over 1 million rupees. She is revered in Sri Lanka to this day.

Bob Sigall, author of "The Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.