The highly cultivated landscape, nurseries and arboretum on campus have not always been what they are today, but have evolved gradually over the past 100 years.
Whitworth has changed with the times and the culture, emerging out of an era when it was referred to as “Camp Whitworth” campus arborist Will Mellott said.
“A maple, which was unusually bright red, seemed literally to shine, as it stood at its post on one corner of the quadrangle,” wrote Helen Doig in 1928 for an in-class exercise later published in "The Whitworthian." “The pine trees were losing their needles and forming brown pieces of carpet against the green.”
Sound familiar? No doubt it should. However, there were many differences in the way the landscaping was back then.
Mellott has been campus arborist for about five years—the first arborist Whitworth has ever had. With a certification from the International Society of Arboriculture, Mellott specializes in caring for the tress, including pruning.
“If you’re spending thousands of dollars on trees, you’re gonna need someone who knows what they’re doing,” Mellott said.
Whitworth currently has about 1000—give or take—ponderosa pines and 700 to 800 non-indigenous trees, Mellott said.
While the arboretum map currently identifies 40 trees, Mellott is working to get 120 labeled on it.
Back in 1929, an article from The Whitworthian called “Circular Glimpses” depicted the forest around Whitworth as an important part of campus culture, particularly during Freshman orations.
“Frequently, a would-be orator can be seen talking earnestly to the trees, and the only response is a sighing of the patient wind,” the writer wrote.
The trees at Whitworth have also historically been a source of pride.
“California sunshine and Florida palms have nothing on the Whitworth campus,” boasted a spring 1934 issue of The Whitworthian.
Then, of course, there was the infamous Whitworth Tree, also known as the “kneeling tree”. The landmark was a monument of young love at Whitworth in the late ‘30s through early ‘50s said alumna Jasmine Linabary in the Whitworth publicaation "Transitions." As a tradition, young men would escort their girlfriend to the tree (located in the back 40) and propose.
Fast-forward a few decades and the tree is not particularly attractive. Located behind the new East Residence Hall, it remains in plain sight, no longer surrounded by the other trees that once protected it.
After a violent windstorm ravaged the tree in August 2008, the arborist bolted what remains of the trunk together in an effort to preserve it.
From “the college in the woods” to the carefully landscaped wonder it is today, Whitworth campus and its trees have never had so much to tell us.
When you look at a tree, Mellott said, “It’s actively growing or in decline—you just can’t see it.”
Every single tree on campus is mapped and accounted for, but the arboretum is a way for students to learn more about the campus.
“We’re about education. If you look at a tree, you ought to know what it is,” Mellott said. “To attract the quality of students we have is to have a place where you can study, learn, grow—landscaping is a big part of that.”
Contact Heather Kennison at heather.kennison@whitworthian.com.
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