Photos of the Week: In Memoriam | The Jones Library’s Trees
This American Elm behind the Jones library was one of about a dozen large trees that were felled to make way for the impending demolition of the 1993 addition to the library. Photo: Josna Rege
During the week of July 24, the Jones Library Expansion Project removed more than a dozen trees behind and to the west of the library in preparation for the demolition of the building’s 1993 addition. The Indy received notes of lamentation for the lost trees from readers, including a letter from Maria Kopicki that was posted in last week’s Indy.
In her introduction she said, “On July 24, 2025 the beautiful Norway Spruce tree that graced the land between the Jones Library and Strong House for decades was felled in the relentless pursuit of the oversized, overpriced library demolition/expansion project. Only its very healthy looking grand stump remained next to the stone bench that sat under its branches.”
And Jim Turner reported ,“ I took a walk behind the Jones on Friday after seeing the sidewalk closed in the front of the building. I felt like crying when I saw the carnage…I don’t know what kind of trees were cut down but they were hardwood and there were at least a dozen stumps of which three where large enough that you couldn’t have wrapped your arms all the way around them.”
Several readers sent us photos, some of which are reproduced below.
Our feature, Photo of the Week, presents each week, a new picture by a local photographer. We invite local photographers to share their photographs here. Please include a description/caption and an indication of who is to be credited.
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With the library ,and the Rafters site being demolished, makes question our current form of government. It is the Wild West . An out of control entity .
NO confidence is my sentiment . I am ready to support a no confidence vote .
It is hard to witness the profit-driven values that Amherst now follows that serve to line the pockets of a few developers. Nowhere is it more apparent that we are headed in the wrong direction than the Jones Library project, the clearest example of a wasteful, unsustainable demolition that does not value the natural world or our town’s history. Earlier in the process the Library Trustees reassured the public that everything possible would be done to save the trees on site. Does it seem plausible to anyone that it was just a coincidence that the majestic Norway Spruce suddenly became dangerous and had to be preemptively cut down in the exact area where the Fontaine Brothers will stage the demolition? And it was the Fontaine Brother’s arborist that decreed the death sentence. Further, will anyone be surprised that with demolition of this magnitude, the 1750’s Strong House Museum next door will suffer irreparable damage to its dry-stone foundation and it too will need to be demolished? And once a gigantic Jones Library is built, suddenly it will become apparent that the Town needs a new parking garage behind the library or perhaps on the former Strong House Museum site? Soon Amherst, once a charming college town, will feel like Storrs, Connecticut, a sterile office park. Visit Storrs, if you want to see what the powers that be have planned for Amherst.