SHADE AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 91 



In 1835 the Common in front of the First Parish meetinghouse had 

 not been fenced in, but the row of elms on the margin of the street 

 had been planted at the same time that a double row was planted on 

 that side of the street to the house now owned by Mr. John E. Hodg- 

 man. Most of the second row have disappeared, but a few of them 

 remain in front of the Academy buildings. 



These trees were set by John G. Park and Benjamin Prescott, and 

 the work was the earliest systematic attempt to improve the appear- 

 ance of the town by the growth of shade and ornamental trees. To 

 Mr. Park I am indebted for the statement that Prescott procured the 

 trees from a farmer in Brookline, New Hampshire, and paid for them 

 with young apple-trees from his father's nursery. The elms in the 

 park now called Prescott Square were set at the same time, and by 

 the same persons. In front of the Judge Prescott place, more re- 

 cently called the Fosdick place, there were two large elms and a 

 black-walnut tree. One elm and the walnut remain, but at a time 

 previous to 1840, the other elm was blown over. 1 



The magnificent elms in front of the Susan Prescott place, now 

 owned by Parker Fletcher, and on both sides of the street and forming 

 an arch over it, were then of great size, as were the elms and black-ash 

 trees further along on the Boston road, and near the residences of 

 George Prescott and Eugene O. Collier. 



In front of the residence of Stuart J. Park, now the residence of 

 Mr. Frank F. Woods, there was a gnarled oak that antedated in its 

 beginning the settlement of the town probably, and, vigorous as it 

 was, it would have withstood the storms of another century. It marked 

 the birthplace of Col. William Prescott, and its destruction was only 

 less than a public calamity. 



There were elm-trees and one or two mountain-ash trees in front 

 of the Academy building now occupied by Mrs. Sibley, and there 

 were elm-trees by the other Academy house, now occupied by Rev. 

 Dr. Young. The mountain-ash trees have disappeared, but the elms 

 can be distinguished readily from their size and marks of age. 



The double row of willows by the road across Broad Meadow were 

 set between the years 1846 and 1851. In those years the board of 

 selectmen consisted of Joshua Gilson, Pelatiah Fletcher, and myself. 

 The railing against the ditches by the roadside had become so im- 



1 This happened, probably, in the year 1836, and during the same gale Mr. 

 Osborn's house, then in process of framing just across the way, was blown 

 down. — G. 



