This tree has seen many changes.
Planted around 1905 on the grounds of what was then the U.S. Patent Office Building, it has slowly grown as the city has developed and transformed around it.
A rare, large, local specimen of a Chinese hackberry
(Celtis sinensis), it has witnessed the relocation of Chinatown
from its original site on Pennsylvania Avenue; rioting, looting, and burning during the 1968 riots; the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum; the rise of Chinatown as a major entertainment and sports destination; and many other momentous events in the history of our nation’s capital.