Monument to a Myth

In 1950, Cambridge dedicated ten tons of granite to the maintenance of a myth. The Washington Monument in the Common near Agassiz crowns a century's debate over the Washington Elm legend. It was under this Elm that George Washington supposedly took command of the Continental Army in 1773. This account, however, holds up little better than the Elm itself which rotted away thirty years ago.

The monument shows Washington on horseback with sword in hand, facing the ranks of the Continental Army. Here under the Elm, he legend asserts, he declared himself Commander-in-Chief. This is borne out by a diary describing that historical day. "Discovered" just in time for Cambridge's centennial, the diary depicts the whole episode, minus a few frills. But historians have since proved this account a forgery, written to document the celebration. Actual accounts paint a different picture of the day. The Continental troops, sick and ragged, were entrenched at the other end of Cambridge, unable to march. Washington himself makes no mention of taking command, merely stating that he too was ill.

But a community that has reared the "Spreading Chestnut Tree," Election Oak, Whitefield Elm and Rebellion Tree would not let the Washington Elm go to the dogs. As it grew old, Cambridge doctored the tree with tar and splints. In 1874, one resident wrote, "its crippled branches swathed in bandages, its scars where, after holding aloft for a century their outstretched arms, limb after limb has fallen nerveless and decayed." The molting season was on, and lasted until 1923, when a workman, while removing a dead branch, pulled down the Elm with it.

Souvenir hunters plagued the tree until the Cambridge government confiscated the remains. Hoping to make the Elm myth "an object lesson in patriotism for the whole country," officials sent fragments to each of the forty-eight governors, a polished cross-section to Mount Vernon, and thirty-two inscribed blocks abroad. They also presented two gavels of Washington Elm to each state legislature. All that remained to mark the tree site was a bronze disk, resembling a manhole cover, in the middle of Garden street.

For many Cambridge citizens, this market was not enough. In 1946 they formed the Washington Elm Memorial Committee and began to lobby for a fitting memento. After years of futile effort, they swing official Cambridge to their cause and, in 1950, the monument was built. On July third, after a two hour parade, the monument was dedicated, followed by the annual fireworks. since then, each year on Washington's Birthday, two American Legion posts and a Coast Guard color guard march through the Commons, leaving a wreath on the monument. This year the wreath was stolen a few hours after they left.