The Thorndike Oak sits on the northwest side of Bowdoin’s main quad near Searles Hall. It is one of several explicitly commemorative trees planted on Bowdoin’s campus, but it is perhaps the most obviously commemorative, with its hexagonal bench at once providing a gathering place for passers-by and sealing off the tree’s base from potential harm. Moreover, a plaque containing information about the tree sits on the side facing the middle of the quad, dedicating itself to the memory of George Thorndike, a man whose life startlingly little is known about– he graduated at the age of 17 from Bowdoin’s first class in 1806, and died 5 years later in St. Petersburg, Russia, becoming the first graduate of the College to die.

In the beginning of this project, I was drawn to the Red Oak between Massachusetts Hall and Pickard Theater planted by the Class of 1889. However, in searching for stories about the 1889 tree, I stumbled upon the story the Thorndike Oak, which sits less than fifty feet away. John Cross, a graduate of the class of 1976, wrote an article in a 2010 edition of Bowdoin Magazine recounting the story.

After leaving the college’s first chapel service held in Massachusetts Hall during the opening of the college in 1802, 13 year-old George Thorndike of Beverly, Massachusetts picked up an acorn. Thorndike reportedly saw a young child– who happened to be James McKeen, the son of Bowdoin’s first President, Jospeh McKeen– playing with a drumstick in the field that would become the Bowdoin quad. Thorndike took the drumstick from McKeen, dug a hole, and dropped the acorn, reportedly saying that “while he may have lacked the genius or ambition to achieve distinction in law, medicine, or the ministry, the tree that he had planted would outlast his classmates and their fame.”

The tree would indeed outlast Thorndike, who died just eight years later. But he was also correct– the fame of any of Thorndike’s classmates was surely outlasted by the tree, which stood for over 170 years until it became sick and was removed by the college in the early 1980s. While the story of the Thorndike Oak was common knowledge to generations of Bowdoin graduates in the 1800s, the tree serving as a spot for speeches, poetry readings, award ceremonies, and other miscellaneous gatherings, Cross notes that by the time of its removal, few knew the story of Thorndike, McKeen, and the tree’s proverbial planting.

In 1996, a new oak was planted near where the original once stood, and is protected by the hexagonal bench today. While there are many commemorative trees on campus today, none have such benches as the new Thorndike Oak. The stone plaque below the bench may not tell the whole story of the Thorndike Oak, but the bench beckons an audience to gather in a way that stays true to the original tree’s purpose.