TBW Daily Diary

Just what we needed: our anniversary sale is in full swing and utility maintenance crews closed Green Street for the whole day . . . Still, the delivery men were able to find us and we were blessed with three major shipments. More about all the new goods later in the week . . . A grand old sycamore in the 200 block of Briggs Street which was raising the sidewalk was taken down today. (A maple was also sacrificed, but it will be replaced with another tree.) The ugliness resulting from this loss will take some getting used to. The void sadly deteriorates the neighborhood esthetically . . . In the '60s ours was an ugly streetscape devoid of foliage. Our small group of activists (which was to become the nucleus of the Historic Harrisburg Association) involved itself in a lengthy discussion with City Hall; we wanted trees and while we were promised they were on the way they never materialized. Joe Russian of North Street finally got tired of the belly-aching and took it upon himself to acquire and plant trees throughout the area. (Donations from home owners gratefully accepted.) It was Joe more or less who provided the leafy neighborhood we have all enjoyed . . . A few decades later the late Dr. Carolyn Dexter gave funds for yet more greenery. And recently Guy Kehler, Lindsay Mills and Michael Ennis put in new trees in their area of Briggs . . . No need to extol the value of trees here; we are all aware of the benefits they provide . . . Did you know that Harrisburg was once known as "the city of trees?" It had a large department devoted to greenery and even its own nursery! And Capitol Park once boasted at least one specimen of every tree native to Pennsylvania. I doubt that is the case today . . . Dutch Elm disease decimated a lot of trees along Front Street a few years ago, and we are warned that a worm that eats ash trees is on the way. But we are all responsible to some extent. To "sell the view" the new Riverside Apartment condo complex destroyed the lovely trees surrounding it and left a devastated landscape in its wake. And I have already noted the denuding of State Street , , , Perhaps the time has come for some legislation to protect our leafy habitat . . .