Standing TALL

Artists finding inspiration in trees is rooted in history

- JOHN O'HERN

On September 11, 1777, British forces led by William Howe defeated the Continental Army led by George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The retreat of American troops was led in part by the Marquis de Lafayette, a 20-year-old French nobleman who had come to America to serve in the Revolution. Lafayette was wounded in the battle and is said to have rested under a sycamore tree on the farm of Gideon Gilpin, a tree that may have been over 50 years old at the time.

Today, the “Lafayette Sycamore” stands proudly at 109 feet tall and 23 feet around next to the Gideon Gilpin House in Chadds Ford. British soldiers had plundered Gilpin’s property and he had to open a tavern there to support his family. The tree has attracted artists for generations.