September 26, 2005

WASHINGTON TULIP POPLAR PLANTED

Over 200 years ago George Washington stopped in Rahway on his way to his inauguration in New York City.  As a living monument to our founding father’s visit to Rahway an authentic George Washington Tulip Poplar now stands near the very spot in the city where Washington was met by his troops in 1789.

Purchased by the Rahway Environmental Commission and donated to the city, the tulip poplar was planted by Rahway’s Public Works Department.  It stands nearby Rahway’s Veterans Memorial on parkland located on the corner of St. George Ave. and West Grand Ave.

What is unique about this particular tree is that it is a direct descendant of the two tulip poplars planted in 1785 by Washington at Mount Vernon, his home on the Potomac River in Virginia.  These majestic trees still stand more than two centuries later.

Through hand pollination by arborists from the National Arboretum, the trees have produced over 1,000 descendants. They are sold through American Forests’ Famous & Historic Trees Program.  Some have been planted at the Vice-President’s residence at the U.S. Observatory in Washington, D.C.  Others were sent to replace tulip poplars at the Versailles Palace in Paris that were destroyed following a 1999 windstorm.

Rahway’s own tulip poplar replaces a large European Purple Beech tree that died in the late 1990s and dated from the time that Veteran’s Park was a private estate.  The Rahway Environmental Commission will also be providing a commemorative marker to be installed at the foot of the tree.

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