S&S Suing City

A 200-year old beech tree across from the Orson Welles Theater on Mass. Ave. is at the center of an ongoing tug-of-war between a local real estate developer and the City of Cambridge.

Last week, Spaulding and Slye filed suit against the nine City Councilors for unanimously declaring the 80-ft. tree a historic landmark on October 28.

The council was acting on the prior recommendation of the city's Historical Commission to save the Houghton beech tree, located between Harvard and Central Squares, from the bulldozer's path.

Spaulding and Slye--a company that has been constructing a fourstory office complex next to the site of the tree at 1000 Mass Ave.--charged that the city exceeded its authority in trying to "to designate something other than a man-made structure or object as a landmark."