The AYPE Lombardy Poplar

This poplar is a leftover from a world's fair. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 was held on this part of the University of Washington campus, and the university's own campus tree tour dates this burly trunk to that event, which makes it about 115 to 120 years old and one of the few living things on the grounds that saw the fair. The building across the street backs the date up. Architecture Hall was built as the Fine Arts Palace for the same exposition, and it and the poplar have stood facing each other on the corner of Stevens Way ever since, one of them looking rather more temporary than the other. A Lombardy poplar is a narrow upright form of black poplar, grown from cuttings rather than seed, which is why they all look identical and why they turn up in rows along drives and boundaries. This one is not a record holder and does not claim to be: bigger Lombardy poplars have been claimed elsewhere in Seattle. Its distinction is that somebody wrote down where it came from. Campus grounds are open and free. The pin uses the campus centre, so navigate to the corner of Stevens Way and Grant Lane, opposite Architecture Hall, and look up.