The Constitution Avenue Elm

A stand of big old trees on private ground at 2101 Constitution Avenue, several of them thicker than this one, went into the city's records as removed in October 2026. This elm, on the public pavement at the western end of the Mall, is the one still standing in that corner of Foggy Bottom. It is the largest of a row of American elms along the north side of Constitution Avenue near 23rd Street. The city's tree inventory gives it a trunk about 144 centimetres across at chest height, roughly 4.5 metres round. Its neighbours are clearly smaller. One elm about 60 metres away measures some 109 centimetres across, another within 20 metres about 62. Laser survey fields in the same record put the crown at around 26 metres high. The tree has been through work. The record notes a heavy prune in December 2023, and at its last inspection, in May 2025, the arborist rated it Good. It also fits a short walk. The Willow Oak Circle in Constitution Gardens is about 320 metres east, and the cork trees of the FDR Memorial are about a kilometre south. The city's inventory is the only source, and it gives no planting date. Nobody has dated this elm. If you know when this stretch of Constitution Avenue was planted, tell us.