Haddonfield Today 020_2018Jun01

12 | haddonfield.today
State of the Borough
#020 • JUNE 1 TO 15, 2018
In Haddonfield, giant trees
link past and present
By Robin Potter – Chair, Shade Tree Commission
With 9,000 street trees and thousands more on private land, Haddonfield’s tree
population easily outnumbers our 11,500 residents. Most of those trees were planted
within the past century, but Haddonfield also is home to a few ancient, giant trees.
“Tree-lined” is a favorite adjective for our town, but those massive, historic trees are
living links to Haddonfield’s heritage.
Consider the big, beautiful trees in the
Society of Friends’ cemetery on Haddon
Avenue. The largest, at over 100 feet tall,
with a spreading canopy and a trunk
diameter of 70 inches, is an American
Sycamore or Buttonwood tree (Platanus
occidentalis) that stands amidst the
gravestones of the Nicholson family. One of
a pair believed to have been planted at the
time of Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh’s death
in 1762, the tree’s stunning white branches
stand out against a clear blue sky in
testimony to the town’s Quaker founders.
By the old pump house on Lake Street,
a massive Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
was already growing in what was then a
woodland at the time of William Penn’s
landing in 1682. Over 60 feet high, with a
diameter of over 65 inches, this massive
tree was celebrated with a plaque on Arbor
Day 1985 by Haddonfield’s Children of the
American Revolution.
Six enormous American Beech trees
(Fagus grandifolia) march through the Birdwood section of Haddonfield. They are all
that remain from a much larger planting completed by John Estaugh Hopkins around
1795 to mark the original, long abandoned entrance drive from Grove Street to his
home, Birdwood, which is still located on Hopkins Lane. These trees, now growing in
residents’ yards, each measure over 50 inches in diameter and are easily identified by
their smooth grey bark.
Although virtually all American Elms (Ulmus americana) were struck down by Dutch
elm disease in the 1950s and 1960s, a few mature examples still grow in Haddonfield.
Look for the distinctive vase-shaped profile of these trees, growing over 80 feet high,
in the front lawns of homes at the corner of Washington and Lafayette Avenues and
at the corner of Warwick Road and Jefferson Avenue. Thanks to the work of a New
Jersey-based tree nursery, a disease-resistant American Elm has been developed,
enabling Haddonfield once again to plant this iconic tree along our streets.
The State of New Jersey maintains a list of Champion Trees, the biggest trees
reported in the state. A Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) growing on Euclid
Avenue has been on that list since the 1990s. One elementary school teacher has
photographed her class in front of the tree and reports that it is thirteen children
wide. But all tree species have lifespans, and Haddonfield’s Honey Locust tree is
failing. Large branches have fallen, and plans are being made to remove the tree.
Giant, historic trees enrich our present even as they link us to our past. Four years
ago, I planted another native tree, a Basswood or American Linden (Tilia americana),
in my front yard. It already is 20 feet tall and this spring, for the first time, I enjoyed
the fragrance of its flowers. Generations from now that tree may mean as much to
residents as our State Champion does to me.
As you look out your door today, consider whether your yard can become home to
a tree that future generations will cherish and fight to save.