Locust trees, like the ones found at West Walk in West Haven, CT have thorns about the size and shape of a darning needle, which grow on the twigs.  It is said that deerskin clad hunters used them to pin together rips in their clothing.

Trees growing in the West Walk section of West Haven are very different than any other trees growing in that coastal area.  That’s because they were chosen for the particular habitat of that area.  The habitat was created by General Electric Company as a coastal site for “all electric homes” within the income of middle class people.

The homes were to be able to withstand coastal storms and New England winters.  Their style of architecture would be Modern.  That meant the buildings would be shaped to take advantage of the seashore location and give maximum protection against the climate.  They would have every advantage then known to electronics and urban planning.  The buildings would have no cellars and all plumbing, wiring, sanitary and surface drainage would be underground.

The site was prepared by tearing down the existing buildings and ripping out their cellars.  The resulting rubble was mixed with the existing soil, mostly sand and clay.  Beach Street was buried about two feet deep and all the rest of the area up to eleven feet deep.  This made it as high as Campbell Avenue at Thomas Street and eleven feet above mean high tide.  Anything planted there would have to thrive in well drained but poor soil and find their way through a tangle of live wires and functioning pipes.

Locust trees were chosen although, according to the guidebooks, none had grown in Connecticut.  Found by Spanish explorers in the lower Mississippi Valley, the species had spread across the south, then north into the foothills of the Appalachians.  In each area, they adapted to local conditions.

Locusts are deciduous trees bearing compounded leaves.  West Walk Locusts have six pairs of leaflets on each main stem.  Sometimes instead of a leaflet a stem appears with its own twelve leaflets.  These Locusts have thorns about the size and shape of a darning needle, which grow on the twigs.  It is said that deerskin clad hunters used them to pin together rips in their clothing. Their blossoms are like tiny bells and their seeds come in protein rich pods.  Morning doves prefer them to other food.  In fall, leaves, blossoms, and thorns turn umber and curl up, ready for raking.

The Locusts on West Walk were planted forty or so years ago as ten to twelve year old saplings.  Those growing along the shore have bent their trunks, shading the walk but also preventing the effects of the off shore winds.  Protected by the buildings, they grow straight trunks for twelve or fourteen feet before dividing into two main limbs.  The limbs branch out with their own branches and twigs forming an open fan-like head on the tree.  Currently, these Locusts are about forty feet tall.

West Walk Locusts perform the duties of trees.  By shading buildings, they make them cooler in the summer.  Their dappled shade allows gardens to grow around their trunks.  Realtors say a tree-shaded building’s price is raised ten thousand dollars.

Up to now, none of the usual enemies of trees have succeeded in killing them.  People who chop off their roots or cut them down for parking spaces have been their only effective enemies.

article compliments of Patricia Herbert

[slideshow]