North and South College Trees

The roads lining the former North and South College building are some of the most used at Union College. Along these roads stand numerous trees that provide shade and overall beauty to this central part of campus. These trees however, have had their fair share of controversy. This controversy starts at the beginning of the campus's creation with Joseph-Jacques Ramée’s plan. In this plan there were no trees present in this central college location. This wasn’t a permanent decision and as seen in a 1952 map created by The United Tree Service there were now trees growing in formerly empty space. This map shows that at the time many Elm trees had been growing there. Unfortunately, as we know, most Elm trees on the Union College campus didn’t survive the damages of the Dutch Elm Disease and these trees were among those destroyed.

Fortunately, the college chose to replace these prominent trees. As seen on the modern Union College tree map the college chose to plant Little Leaf Linden trees in their absence. Surprisingly, Not everyone was happy with this change. One of these such people was late Professor and Interim President James Underwood. While not documented, it was rumored that he didn't like the trees in this area but unfortunately we won't be able to ask him his thoughts.  This doesn't end the story of these trees as since 2021 many of these trees have sustained severe weather related damages. This leads the question about weather these trees should be kept there or if James Underwood's spirit lives on to haunt these trees he dislikes.

Bibliography:

1952, U. T. S. (n.d.). Tree Survey. map, Schenectady, NY; Special Collections and Archives, Union College.

Conti, J. (n.d.). Union College - Tree Points Layout. Tree Points Layout. Unpublished.

Grabowski, M. (2019). Dutch elm disease. UMN Extension. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/dutch-elm-disease#:~:text=Dutch%20elm%20disease%20(DED)%20causes,to%20tree%20through%20root%20grafts.