“Lovely Lawns Carefully Kept”

“Lovely Lawns Carefully Kept”. . Alexander Rossi, an early Boise resident, donated a “dry plat of desert sagebrush” to the US Treasury Department for the Assay Office. Over time, building occupants planted flower and vegetable gardens, shrubs and trees. Local citizens donated to the effort. This site quickly became a de facto park when no others existed in the growing town., The site has changed over time. Many trees were lost due to age or disease. New trees were planted. The Idaho State Historical Society added this interpretive path to commemorate 150 years of the building. Some things haven’t changed: the public still enjoys these grounds as a de facto park., Inset , Albert Wolters was chief assayer from 1872 to 1883. He oversaw the planting of many trees and shrubs, including an allée, or double row, of American linden trees. Remnants of the allée still exist on both sides of the building. Berlin’s famous Unter den Linden – a boulevard of linden trees in Wolters’ native Germany – inspired this formal alignment., In 1916, Chief Assayer Curtis Pike had six fox squirrels sent to the Assay Office from his native Missouri. He hoped they would become “city pets.” To Pike’s disappointment, they quickly wandered from these grounds. These six wayward critters may be the ancestors of today’s Boise squirrel population., Timeline , From Time Immemorial - Indigenous People , 1869 - 1932 - US Treasury Department , 1932 - 1972 - US Forest Service , 1972 - present - Idaho State Historical Society