The Committee of Beacon Street Residents raised money to plant trees on Beacon Street between Arlington Street and Massachusetts Avenue in 1910. Mrs. Frederick T. Lord of 305 Beacon Street was the Chairman of that Committee. On November 16, 1937, she received a letter signed by Arthur A. Shurcliff, pictured below, a prominent landscape architect at 11 Beacon Street, in answer to a letter she sent to him. The text is as follows:
“Dear Mrs. Lord:
I am glad you wrote me on the 5th with the questions. There are no plans showing the location of the Beacon Street tree pits as finally installed. The tentative layout was modified on the ground just before pits were dug and were adjusted to property lines, hydrants, and existing trees. I think some of the owners who were opposed to tree planting in those days would be glad to have trees now.
It is pretty hard to answer the question about the landscape architect’s plans. I wish he had sat at a table with your daughter and roughed out some of his ideas to find out whether or not they seemed promising before going ahead with the elaborate plans.
I wonder if your daughter gave the landscape architect a free-hand.
If further work is done with the landscape architect, wouldn’t it be a good idea to rough out on the back of an envelope something which seems promising before any development is made? Rough preliminary sketches of that kind often expedite work and save later misunderstandings.
I often think of the pleasant hours we passed together at the planting of the Beacon Street trees. You have, of course, noticed how thriving they are and how fully our hopes were realized. We did not dream the trees would be injured more by collision with vehicles than by horses. You remember we were afraid the horses would gnaw off the bark.
Yours sincerely, Arthur A. Shurcliff”
Vehicles still collide with the trees, and DigSafe often shows we must adjust a planting site due to utility lines, but don’t you just love the comment about the horses?
