Elms' gorgeous tunnels

Lafayette Street in Salem, Mass., from a 1910 colorized postcard — an example of the high-tunneled effects of American Elms planted along streets in New England towns. Most of them were gone by the 1950s.

Lafayette Street in Salem, Mass., from a 1910 colorized postcard — an example of the high-tunneled effects of American Elms planted along streets in New England towns. Most of them were gone by the 1950s.

“The elms of New England! They are as much a part of her beauty as the columns of the Parthenon were the glory of its architecture.”

— Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87)

Then came Dutch Elm Disease