The Trees of Sutherland Park – The Elm, the Oaks, the Whale and the Ghosts of Gardens
In 1901, the new Hendrik Hudson Hotel on Park Hill, with its stunning views of the Hudson River and Palisades, burned down days before it was scheduled to open. But today, if you wander along the steep and overgrown walking trails of Leslie Sutherland Park that lead down from Overcliff Street to McClean Avenue and South Broadway, you can still get a feel for the grandeur of what once was the hotel’s formal gardens.
Having mostly been reclaimed by the forest, the gardens were originally advertised as containing “a magnificent growth of old forest trees.”
Stop! Hold it right there. In my hunt for 100 Interesting Trees in Yonkers, this description gave me goosebumps. Magnificent trees – OMG! If you look at the photograph of the hotel in this story’s caption, you can see some of them. I speculated that if they were still alive today — which was certainly within the realm of possibility — they’d be monsters, at least 175 years old. I had to investigate and find them if I could.
My visit to Sutherland Park, named after Leslie Sutherland who served as Yonkers mayor from 1897-1901, started out with a bang. There’s a wonderfully large American elm in remarkably good shape in the upper part of the park, on a small sloping lawn. It must be in the footprint of where the hotel once stood (who knows, the city has yet to put up a plaque or kiosk about the hotel).. Mature and healthy elms are now a rarity because of Dutch elm disease, which was first discovered in the 1930s.
The Sutherland Elm
This lovely three-stemmed elm — now known as the Sutherland Elm – has earned a place in our top 100 list, and it made me think about bygone trees on the Rumsey Road median.
Although I couldn’t find proof, my guess is that when Rumsey was first laid out in the 1880s, when Park Hill was being developed as a luxurious escape from Manhattan, it was lined with elms, whose stately arching branches shaded the gracious boulevard. Looking at the trees there now, none were planted before 1950. Today’s trees must have replaced the stricken elms, but it just ain’t the same.
After admiring the Sutherland Elm, I descended into a trail leading into the forest. In just a few steps, I was transported into a funky ecological jungle, an exotic mix of native plants and invasive species – with poison ivy galore – leading down the hill to the back of the lovely new storage facility on McClean, where the Pizza Barn used to be. A magnificent natural resource, neglected by the city. It screamed Yonkers! I loved the whole discordant mess, that didn’t quite obscure the stone walls and paths that once made up Hendrik Hudson’s gardens.
Sutherland White Oak; Gnarly Northern Red Oak; and Maybe Black Oak
And then there they were! The magnificent trees, a few of them still stood. An enormous white oak, a gnarly northern red oak, and maybe a black oak all rising above the chaos of the woodland floor. Towering above the smothering English Ivy, bittersweet and winter creeper. Above the young tulips, hickory, Norway Maples, and noxious lanterns-fly-friendly trees of heaven. Above the May apples, mock orange and overgrown yews, above the broken but magnificent stone work, above the trash. Above it all. Watching over all.
The Whale
But unfortunately, now some of the oldest trees are lying down on the job, having succumbed to the ravages of time. Their enormous carcasses are consumed by vines as they peacefully molder on the ground. My tour guide friend called the largest and most recent to fall – The Whale. I tried to identify it only from its bark but wasn’t sure. As trees age their bark often changes, and this was a super old tree. Maybe an oak, but which kind? I didn’t know. It’s resting now, slowly giving itself back to the earth.
For the adventurous, I encourage you to visit Sutherland Park. Admire the Sutherland Elm, views of the Hudson River, and enjoy a bird’s eye view of the canopy of the forest below. And if you dare, explore the winding paths through the old Hendrik Hudson Hotel gardens. But come prepared, the paths are not well maintained, there’s poison ivy all over the place, and the twists and turns are not on a map that’s available at the park.
I understand that the Groundworks Hudson Valley Green Team has pitched in to keep the trails from vanishing, and in past years neighborhood volunteers kept the park beautiful. But nature is taking its course. It’s a wild, unruly Yonkers I’m sure you don’t know.
But oh, the magnificent trees are waiting patiently for you. Catch them before they go.
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In this episode, we’ve added five new trees to our growing list of the 100 Interesting Trees of Yonkers:
The Sutherland Elm
The Sutherland White Oak
The Sutherland Gnarly Northern Red Oak
The Sutherland Maybe Black Oak
The Whale
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Leslie Sutherland Park is an 8.5 acre City Park located in Southwest Yonkers at 35 Overcliff Street, Yonkers, NY 10705-1649
A Tree Grows In Yonkers is a series by Phil Zisman. You can read more of the past series at The Yonkers Ledger. If you have a tree you love or would like Phil to cover, write him at [email protected]
