1912 - No ceremony for Mrs. Taft
This article is from The Washington Post on March 28, 1912, the day after Mrs. Taft planted the first tree.
Dr. David Fairchild, the botanist for the Agriculture Department who grew trees on his own property in Maryland, and Mrs. Taft, both envisioned a grove of cherry trees along The Speedway. The Speedway was a road called that because horses could pull carriages at a fast trot and could "speed" along an area now roughly equivalent to Independence Avenue from 17th Street, SW to the area of what is now The Lincoln Memorial. But in 1912, there was no Kutz Bridge over the Tidal Basin and there was no finished Tidal Basin stone wall. There was a watery lowland that attracted insects. Now the stone wall of the Tidal Basin is just about 40 feet south from the first tree planted by Mrs. Taft.
There was no large ceremony the day Mrs. Taft planted the first tree. According to this article, the planting was "unofficial" and only Mrs. Taft, the Japanese Ambassador and his wife--Count and Viscountess Chinda, Col. Cosby, and Eliza Scidmore were the five notables present.
