Bad Ends · STOP 10 · Boston Common
The best old source on the 'hanging tree' is a surgeon's pamphlet, and he meant hanging in effigy.
A marker on Boston Common calls the Great Elm 'the colony's dreaded hanging tree.' The best old source on it is an 1855 pamphlet by John Collins Warren, the surgeon from the first public ether operation, and he meant hanging in effigy. Dummies. A storm took the tree down long ago. A small tablet near Frog Pond marks the spot and remembers a sermon instead.
This is stop 10 of Bad Ends. Walk it - any two stops are free.
The plate
Collected on site
On the Common, uphill from Frog Pond, toward Tremont and West Streets
Directions
There is a named hanging on the Common, just not on the Elm. In 1789 three people were hanged near the ropewalk where the Public Garden is now. One was Rachel Whall, for snatching a bonnet.
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
Argue about it
Was the Great Elm Boston's hanging tree?
Both sides, with their sources, are on the story card in the app.
In these collections: Legends Busted, Wrong Signs, Crime Scenes
Near Boylston · Near Park Street · Near Chinatown · Near Downtown Crossing
Sources (7)
- The Common / Charles Street (marker)HMdb.org marker 176868 · accessed 2026-10-10
- Site of the Great Elm (marker)HMdb.org marker 215820; erected by the N.E. Methodist Historical Society · photos 2023-01-28
- The Tree on Boston CommonMassachusetts Historical Society, The Beehive blog · 2017-02
- The Great Tree on Boston CommonJ. C. Warren, M.D. (John Collins Warren, 1778-1856), printed by John Wilson & Son · 1855
- Where Were the Quakers Hanged?Michael J. Canavan, Proceedings of the Bostonian Society (annual meeting 1911) · 1911
- Great Elm (Boston)Wikipedia (lead only; cites Ayer 1903, J.C. Warren 1855, Friends of the Public Garden 2005, Barber 1916) · accessed 2026-10-10
- The old elm, Boston CommonUnknown photographer; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LOT 15401, no. 37) · 1867