Hangman's Elm

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Hangman's Elm

Hangman's Elm, or simply "The Hanging Tree", is an English Elm located at the Northwest corner in Washington Square Park, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It stands 110 feet (33.52 m) tall and has a diameter of 56 inches (1.42 m).

In 1989, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation determined that this English Elm was 310 years old, making it the oldest known tree in Manhattan. The elm has outlived the city’s other famous old trees: Peter Stuyvesant’s pear tree at the northeast corner of 13th Street and Third Avenue, and the great Tulip poplar at Shorakapkok in Washington Heights.

The earliest references to the elm as a "hanging tree" date from the late 1800s, long after the supposed hangings were said to have taken place. Recent extensive research into the park's history by more than one historian^[1] ^[2] has shown that the tree was on a private farm until the land was bought by the city and added to Washington Square in 1827. No public records exist of hangings from this tree.

The only recorded execution in this area was of Rose Butler, in 1820, for arson. She was hanged from a gallows in the city's potter's field, on the eastern side of Minetta Creek, about 150 meters from the elm; at that time, Minetta Creek ran in a shallow ravine between the potter's field and the farm where the elm stood.

In spite of the complete lack of evidence for this tree's use as an execution site, the nineteenth century "legends" continue to be quoted by some tour guides and people who write about the neighborhood. They say that traitors were hanged at this location during the American Revolutionary War and that the Marquis de Lafayette witnessed the festive hanging of 20 highwaymen from the elm in 1824.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

^ "Geismar, Ph.D., LLC", "Joan H.". Washington Square Phase 1A Archaeological Assessment.
^ Harris, Luther. Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village.