History: Vanderbilt’s biggest ash tree

Kirkland Hall 1925 showing magnolia 2-865 (left) and white ash 2-638 (right). Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives photo archives PA.BLD.KIRH.037

Kirkland Hall 2020 showing magnolia 2-865 (left) and white ash 2-638 (right). Photo by Taylor Hopkins under a CC BY license.

Among the many trees outside surrounding Kirkland Hall is a beautiful white ash tree. This tree can be seen on the far right without its leaves in a 1925 photo of Kirkland Hall. While all across Tennessee white ash trees have been wiped out by invasive emerald ash borers (EAB), this white ash tree has lived a long life and will hopefully continues to flourish on campus since it was one of the trees chosen to be treated against the EAB. As it was already a large tree when the photo was taken in 1925, this white ash tree is easily over 100 years old and has potentially been a member of the Vanderbilt tree community since Bishop McTeiyre’s inaugural tree planting campaign in the 1870s.

Return to the historical tree tour page for white ash 2-638.