LSU Hilltop Arboretum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a fourteen-acre public garden developed beginning in 1929 by Mr. and Mrs. Emory Smith and donated to Louisiana State University in 1981. The Smiths conceived it in the form of a cathedral, with a central grassy nave and branching paths leading into a series of outdoor rooms. Living walls of trees, shrubs, and bamboo, along with old tree trunks used as pillars, created niches, passageways, and enclosed spaces rather than a broad open park. Its significance lies in this distinctive design and in its diverse plantings of native and ornamental species.