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Historic Copper Beech tree in front of the George Eastman Museum cut down for safety reasons

The Copper Beech Tree in front of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester just before it was taken down on March 7, 2022.
Randy Gorbman
/
WXXI News
The Copper Beech Tree in front of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester just before it was taken down on March 7, 2022.

A very old tree that likely stood for centuries in front of the George Eastman Museum was taken down on Monday.

Museum officials said it had become a safety issue.

Tree service workers started work early in the morning on Monday after the recent strong winds blew down some more branches.

Even more the recent windstorm, landscape manager Dan Bellavia said they had made the decision to take down the Copper Beech tree, a tree that he said likely has been around for about two centuries.

“The tree’s coming down because it’s become unsafe due to a bunch of diseases that have attacked it over the last 200 years,” said Bellavia. “It’s finally gotten too old, it can’t fight off the diseases anymore.”

Bellavia said they tried to slow the decay of the tree, but workers had limited choices at this point.

And he said it does hurt when you have to take down such an historic tree.

“Absolutely it bothers me when I have to have a tree taken down that that’s old,” said Bellavia. “It’s one of the problems I run into, running a piece of property like this, with historic trees and shrubs and things. When they die, I can’t replace them. It’s not something I can replace tomorrow, or in my lifetime that it’ll have a tree this size.”

George Eastman house, construction of the west garden, ca. 1916. Yellow highlight added to the Ross property Beech Tree photo to emphasize its location.
George Eastman Collection
/
Gift of Eastman Kodak Co.
George Eastman house, construction of the west garden, ca. 1916. Yellow highlight added to the Ross property Beech Tree photo to emphasize its location.

Something will eventually be planted in the front yard of the George Eastman Museum, but Bellavia said his crew will move it away from the parking lot and the driveway, where the next tree should have a better chance of thriving.

Officials at the George Eastman Museum said that they hope to retain some healthy pieces of the wood from the tree that was taken down this week, and they will look to see whether they can be turned into a bench, or some other fitting tribute.

Meantime, one of the other visual features near the Copper Beach tree continues. The yellow Winter Aconite flowers started to bloom on the ground near the tree this week after Sunday’s unusually warm weather.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.