Alfred Fanton Sanford (1875-1946) was born to Edward Jackson and Emma Francillon Chavannes Sanford on February 21, 1875 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was educated at the University of Tennessee (1891-1893) and published the Knoxville Journal and Tribune from 1898 to 1928. He was also the President of Sanford Realty Company, President of the Empire Building Corporation, President of Leasing Company No. 1, and Director of the Sanford Investment Company.

In 1928, Sanford sold the Knoxville Journal and Tribune in order to pursue a lifelong dream: to build an arboretum that contained an example of every tree native to Tennessee. Tended lovingly by Sanford and his gardner, Pleasant Wright, the final museum spanned 20 acres between Kingston Pike and the Tennessee River and contained a staggering array of Tennessee flora. Sanford offered his cherished arboretum to the University of Tennessee Botany Department when his health began to fail in the early 1940s, but the department refused it due to the high upkeep costs. After Sanford's death on May 22, 1946, the arboretum was subdivided. Most of the land is now occupied by Boxwood Park, which is named for Sanford's home.