The Allée

Yesterday I wrote about my neighborhood store. Today's subject is our linden allée. When the neighborhood was platted in the early 1900s, several wonderful landscaping features were added. All the north-south running avenues were lined with maple trees, which grew to form an archway across the streets. The east-west running streets had American elms, those huge fountain-like trees that used to be a feature of the Elm Streets of every American town. Alas, the country's majestic elms are mostly gone, lost to the Dutch elm disease. Many of our elms remain although they are ill with the fungus and each winter we lose a few.

Down the center of the neighborhood, running for a mile, is an allée of linden trees. An allée is a "feature of the French formal gardens that was both a promenade and an extension of the view. It either ended in a terminal feature, such as a garden temple, or extended into apparent infinity at the horizon". This is the definition at www.brittanica.com. Other sources simply define it as a walkway lined with trees or shrubs. I prefer the first definition because, as the photo taken this morning shows, our allée leads the eye into the distance. It is a favorite place for runners, children on bikes, and people walking their dogs. It is beautiful at all seasons, but in the fall it invites us to walk along its golden road.