My second example of Portland’s historical relationship with its amenities centers on one tree. Although a single tree does not create enormous tangible value in and of itself, individuals may still ascribe value to a tree, and thus imbue it with additional context for amenity value. In the case of the Burrell Elm, a tree which we might describe as “standing witness” to much of Portland’s development, the tree is often constructed as a charismatic individual, and produces value through the historical content it conveys. In this case, it is appropriate to consider the value of an amenity through the stories we tell about it.
The Burrell Elm, as it is known today, was planted by Martin and Rosetta Burrell in approximately 1875. Martin Burrell was the wealthy owner of a company supplying goods first to farmers in the Willamette Valley, and later to farming and mining centers all throughout the northwest. A talented business manager, Martin Burrell soon expanded his business to include financial interests in farming, mining, and banking operations around the northwest. Their large estate sat prominently in what is now downtown Portland.
Rosetta Burrell was a prominent force in shaping the early city, and was somewhat of an early social justice advocate. She fought for public schools throughout Portland and the Oregon Territory; she helped to found the Portland Women’s Union, of which she was the first president; and she was an active member of the First Unitarian Church. In 1887, she partly funded and largely founded the Martha Washington Hotel for Self-Supporting Women, a boarding-house which provided educational and occupational training to single women.
In this period, Portland was largely divided into tracts individually owned by private estates. Portlanders will likely recognize names such as John H. Couch, Benjamin Stark, and James Terwilliger—early Portland landowners whose names have been immortalized as prominent streets. As the city grew, however, the large landowners began to sell or rent lots to smaller parties. The growing resource production and shipping industries put pressure on the city for denser development, and Portland began to take on a recognizably modern form by the end of the nineteenth century. In 1891, the city merged with East Portland and the Town of Albina—present-day North Portland.
When Martin Burrell died in 1885, the first wave of development had only just begun. His son, Walter, was given control of his estate, including his large business. At age 22, however, Walter Burrell lacked his father’s talent for managing what had become a business empire, and the business slowly fell apart. The arrival of the Great Depression in the 1930s finished what Walter Burrell’s business management skills had started, and he sold his property to move with his wife to Santa Barbara, California, where he lived the remainder of his days.
Over the years, as Portland’s population grew, the Burrell estate was slowly dis- mantled to give way for the dense development that characterized the city’s pattern of growth. By 1973, no original structures from the Burrell estate were left. The Elm that Martin and Rosetta planted in the 1870’s, however, remained standing. In 1975, the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Historical Landmarks Commis- sion designated the tree a historic landmark, a designation previously only applied to buildings and built structures.
In 1993, Portland created its Heritage Tree Code, with the Burrell Elm first on the list of Heritage Trees. The Heritage Tree Code recognizes trees that are “of special importance” to the city. This can be for reasons of their age, size, type, or horticultural value, but frequently it is due to their historical significance. In designating this code, the City Council recognized the value of trees as individuals who have, so to speak, witnessed change in the city through their survival. In doing so, we ascribe value to trees which we deem to have experienced stories that we have not experienced ourselves.
The Burrell Elm and the Heritage Tree Code illustrate how humans ascribe value to individual trees in order to commemorate broader processes of city history. The Burrell Estate is taken to represent many aspects of the city’s history—the creation of large business interests, the prominence of socially-minded institutions, and the rise of dense city development, to name a few. The Heritage Tree Code personifies the trees which it treats as participants in this process of change. By virtue of its preservation through shifts in the values of city administration, policies now value these trees as witnesses and charismatic individuals.