Horticulturist and the B&O Holly Tree By Frank A. Wrabel

The exact year has been lost to the ages and the specific purpose for one memorable inspection trip has long been forgotten. Astute realization did take hold during that trip and prompted B&O Senior Vice President George M. Shriver to convince the president of the railroad to purchase a small parcel of land adjacent to the mainline northeast of the Susquehanna River. Shriver’s thoughtful action, though nearly forgotten, contributed materially to the B&O public relations efforts, brought national recognition to a landmark tree in Maryland and forecast latter-day environmental perservation initiatives.

Shriver, a horticulturist, often noted a magnificent holly tree, almost 60 feet tall at Jackson, Maryland on his frequent trips with other company officers and succumbed to the beauty of the dark green leaves and bright red berries which set that tree apart from all others. Local farmer Evan G. Sentman had found it as a small seedling during a fishing trip and planted it on his farm in 1870. Soon after, the B&O built its revered Royal Blue Line adjacent to the tree.  By 1888, the B&O demonstrated its faith in the town of Jackson by adding a handsome combination passenger and freight station, embellished with a riot of eclectic elements that were the hallmark of Philadelphia architect Frank Furness.

Finally, Shriver became engaged and suggested to B&O President Daniel Willard that the railroad purchase the holly tree to ensure its preservation. Willard agreed and the B&O approached the Sentman family with an offer but that was quickly rejected and subsequent offers were similarly repulsed. Finally, in 1930, the family agreed to sell the B&O the tree and the 1.1-acre of land surrounding it. Perhaps it was a case of true salesmanship on the part of the B&O, its sincerity with respect to the tree itself or the urgent need of income to offset the loss of the Sentman homestead due to fire, but Shriver and the B&O had their prize. The railroad made good on its promise to preserve the tree and promptly installed a section foreman at the site who attended to the tree in exchange for a break on his rent.

Eighty years later, the extreme efforts of that observant executive and expenditure of corporate funds for the tree itself may surprise uninitiated observers; but Shriver was no ordinary executive and the B&O was no ordinary railroad. The recent death of Sargent Shriver was a reminder that the Shriver family in Maryland can recall a long record of activism and service. George McLean Shriver, a senior relative of the Peace Corps founder, joined the B&O in 1887 at the age of 18; and by 1891, he advanced to become the Secretary to B&O President Charles F. Mayer. Shriver had an appreciation for history and the vision to carefully document the long and arduous process Mayer went through to locate and eventually embrace the exacting shade of royal blue, officially known as Royal Saxony Blue, that gave the new route to Philadelphia and New York and eventually the greater B&O, its legendary name. Later promotions included Second Vice President in 1911, Vice President in 1916 and Senior Vice President in March of 1920, the month and year the United States Railroad Administration was abolished and the B&O returned to private management. Shriver was elected to the B&O Board of Directors in 1922 and had the confidence and unwavering trust of Daniel Willard.

The B&O organization itself was, of course, firmly committed to tradition and that sentiment eventually matured to high-level historic preservation, long before such efforts were formally recognized or widely embraced. B&O took its role as America’s First Railroad seriously and marked its centennial in 1927 with the memorable Fair of the Iron Horse and later went on to ensure that its collection of historic locomotives, cars and other artifacts were preserved for future generations to enjoy. Adopting the holly tree and investing in its health and longevity was a natural extension of its parental and sentimental instincts. Nothing more occurred at the Jackson farm immediately after the B&O acquired the tree, however, for just as harsh economic reality most likely advanced the sale of the tree, B&O was now faced with similar challenges due to the Great Depression that eclipsed any additional expenditure toward the upkeep of that beautiful tree in the idyllic Maryland countryside. Shriver remained active on the Board of Directors until his death in 1942 but the holly tree was hardly forgotten.

The return to peacetime immediately after World War II introduced more lavish expressions of the Christmas season. Americans felt the need to celebrate and the emerging service economy and advanced methods of mass production and mass merchandising solidly fueled that growth. Still that expansion was far removed from the gross excess and crass commercialism that have since tainted that respected season. A small group of B&O employees, aided by R. M. Van Sant in the Public Relations Department, felt the need to celebrate too and immediately employed that impressive ilex which innocently slumbered in northeast Maryland.

In 1947, the section foreman and his assistants at Jackson, with the help of Sentman’s son, voluntarily decorated the tree. Public Relations representative Margaret Virginia Tanner recalled that the railroad then began the custom of clipping sprigs of holly off of the tree at Jackson for front line service employees to wear during the two weeks preceding Christmas day. Prior to initiating that practice, however, the B&O hired Davey Tree Specialists to care for and supervise the careful pruning of the sacred tree to guarantee its continued health. The ever-thoughtful B&O also planted seventy male hollies to ensure pollination. Holly for employees at remote outposts of the B&O was obtained from local florists. The public reaction was overwhelmingly favorable and a new B&O tradition was born. Soon, ticket envelopes, dining car menus and station posters carried the holly theme, often accompanied by a brief story about the significance of the Jackson holly tree. The B&O went on to feature the holly tree image on Christmas cards and postcards to shippers and other forms of correspondence.

That festive expression of the season escalated in 1948 when the supervised practice of decorating the holly tree commenced. Craftsmen at historic Mt. Clare Shops fabricated a large, sheet metal star that topped 1,000 tree ornaments and 1,358 large, colored lights which were supplied by the New York firm that provided the trimmings for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. In common with standard signage along that route, a royal blue and gold marker was positioned in front of the display and recited the history of the tree. To cast the spotlight on all of that, B&O arranged a ceremony to switch on the lights. A special train was operated from Baltimore’s Mt. Royal Station bearing President Roy B. White (later, Howard E. Simpson), the B&O Glee Club, the Women’s Music Club, military guests and hundreds of employees and friends of the railroad. Once the passengers left the coziness and warmth of the steam-heated coaches at Jackson and surrounded the tree, the switch was thrown, the lights lit up the sky as the crowd of nearly 3,000 gasped and the choirs began. Afterward in daily practice, passing trains were under slow orders through Jackson and crew members would make a special announcement to passengers calling attention to the beautifully decorated tree, soon known throughout the nation as “the travelers Christmas tree”. Responses from passengers were most enthusiastic and were soon underscored by media attention when Morgan Beatty of NBC Radio gave the tree national exposure which was quickly followed by the Mutual Network and Associated Press. That comprehensive national attention pushed attendance at the Jackson display to 54,546 in 1954.

Fortunately, expense justification and aggressive methods of cost accounting were not rigidly enforced since a heroic and expense-intensive effort was required to bring the holly tree theme and the elaborate Jackson celebration to life. A latter-day memorandum from W. H. Schmidt, Jr., Director of Public Relations, dated November 14, 1956, is revealing. That seven-page, legal-sized document lists 34 points of detailed instructions which required the participation of ten departments, all acting in concert, to ensure timely delivery to produce the most favorable public response.

Schmidt clearly delineated what was required and tasks included: sorting the material used for the tree at the Camden Warehouse, loading the express cars with material for Jackson, cleaning up the holly tree lot, erecting the platform at Jackson, roofing material and canvas sides for the platform, risers for the choruses, carpet for the platform, heat for the platform area, lights and decorations, master switch for lighting, public address systems, podium, piano and bench, music stands, chairs, trimming holly for employees to wear, the large metal star, electrical lights, role of B&O police, support by local police, highway signs to be posted near Jackson, issuance of special notices, instructions for B&O staff photographers, special step boxes for train-side at Jackson, doctors and nurses required, details for the special train and equipment to be used, instructions to dining car staff, tickets for the special train, holly tree-theme printing instructions, instructions to employees wearing holly, broadcasting instructions, instruction to station agents, procedure for the actual lighting of the tree, special announcements to passengers on board trains passing  and cleanup.

The burden for much of that ceremony was borne by Vice President of Operations, W. C. Baker and his staff in the form of scheduling the express cars in the consist of the local freight train to Jackson the week prior to the ceremony and assembling the special train “from the best available coaches” without drawing from regularly-assigned equipment. The special train remained at the Jackson during the ceremony with the lights dimmed; and while the passengers enjoyed the outdoor performance, members of the Dining Car Department efficiently placed sealed cellophane packages of fruit cake on each seat and prepared hot coffee and hot chocolate for the return trip to Baltimore. Restricting railroad traffic during the ceremony was also required, lest double-headed Q-4 steam locomotives thundering through the Jackson site with a time-sensitive manifest freight train would have surely compromised the joyous strains of Silent Night and Oh Little Town of Bethlehem and created a safety nightmare of monumental proportions given the presence of thousands of visitors which circulated in the darkness of night. (Baker advanced rapidly in Operations after his stint as program manager at the Fair of the Iron Horse. Indeed, Willard was so impressed with the performance of his “boys and girls” that many of the principals of that event enjoyed life-long employment, including Olive Dennis, Margaret Talbot Stevens, R. M. Van Sant, F. X. Milholland, E. W. Scheer, T. C. Roberts, C. M. Schlesinger, R. E. Powell and J. J. Nugent.  Irrespective of his demanding schedule, Baker frequently committed time to B&O public relations efforts and later assisted noted Baltimore author and director Adele Gutman Nathan with the popular textbook Famous Railroad Stations of the World.)

Despite that expense and commitment of resources during the heavy volumes of peak holiday traffic, no evidence suggests shallow and self-serving commercialism motivated B&O management, its agents or employees and this entire practice was in fact just as it appeared: the Mother of all American railroads extending the best wishes of the season to the world. Fortunately, news reporting in that era was less cynical and sensational and the honest efforts of the B&O were not obscured. A TV journalist riding one of the Jackson special trains captured that spirit, commenting: “The tree, of course, is decorated for the enjoyment of passengers on B&O’s trains and for the thousands of the people who visit it from far and near. But insofar as our train ride was concerned, here was a great corporation going to a lot of trouble and expense for the primary purpose giving a group of employees a happy evening. It was an acknowledgement by the B&O that each man and woman in its employ is not merely a labor unit, but a person with human as well as economic needs…so when the holly tree blazes again this year, it will light up as it has lighted for a number of years past, more than a short stretch of B&O tracks.”

Perpetuating the momentum of goodwill B&O perfected with the elaborate holly tree promotions in the period from 1947 to 1958 would not continue. Critics point to the 1963 affiliation with the C&O as the turning point; but hardships within the B&O itself, changing social attitudes and a troublesome economy suggest otherwise. The first signs of retrenchment occurred when increasing passenger losses forced the B&O to suspend passenger service east of Baltimore on April 26, 1958, and the route was quickly reduced to a single-track, CTC, freight service only operation. Suddenly, “the traveler’s Christmas tree” was no longer viewed by admiring passengers aboard the stately blue and gray express trains that gave the railroad eternal recognition for first class service. The handsome Jackson station had been demolished years earlier, a victim of encroaching highways and motor traffic that hastened the demise of local passenger and freight service. Several later-day holly tree specials did in fact operate from Baltimore to Jackson but those were modest affairs devoid of the choir, live radio broadcasts, elaborate promotion and the hot coffee, hot chocolate and tasty snacks courtesy of the Dining Car Department. The last ones were actually sponsored by independent local railroad history groups.

The affiliated C&O/B&O did commit funds to care for and preserve the famous holly tree and the combined railroads also continued to purchase new decorations and lights when required. As a nod to B&O tradition, C&O President Walter J. Tuohy posed for a photograph with holly tree workers which was used to promote the advancing coordination between the historic railroads. C&O/B&O also printed and distributed a postcard featuring a contemporary painting of the holly tree with a B&O freight train in the background that was the work of well-known Maryland artist Sarah Carothers Rhode. Additionally, the holly theme remained prominent on the menus that graced the immaculate and elaborately set tables on the Capitol Limited during the Christmas season. The railroad also maintained the same tree lighting schedule for the benefit of faithful visitors who now arrived by automobile and played the 1954 Christmas recording of the B&O Glee Club. Despite the limitations of that imperfect audio system, the moving B&O rendition of Oh Holly Night still warmed the crisp night air by recalling the best of the season and the happier, more lavish ceremonies of the past.

Unfortunately, the period from 1963 into the early 1970s was marked by wide-spread civil unrest ,prompting social changes that forcefully compromised Christmas tradition. Classical Christmas music was less popular and nearly disappeared from local radio channels. The masses now pursued more private, less formal and increasingly secular and generic “holiday entertainment”. Despite the eternal beauty of the tree, attendance at the annual Jackson display started to slide. That erosion accelerated in 1963 when Interstate 95 opened, casting the older paralleling US Route 40 and the motels, restaurants and attractions along that roadway into serious decline. Simply stated, once loyal visitors and their siblings no longer felt the holly tree enticing enough to make the journey to Jackson; and travelers on I-95 seemed unwilling to take the short detour off the highway to view the nationally-acclaimed, but increasingly isolated tree.

Slammed by the economic recession that gripped the nation in the early 1970s, the uncertainty in eastern railroading after the collapse of Penn Central in 1970-1971 and the cost related to joining Amtrak on May 1, 1971, C&O/B&O had to establish priorities for all other non-essential expenses. Additionally, the costly re-branding of the railroad to the bold and cheerful Chessie System theme simultaneously commenced and vast sums of capital were committed to rebuilding the B&O Railroad Museum and the evolving Sesquicentennial Celebration of the B&O in 1977. The annual expense of $4,000 to $5,000 related to the Jackson site and the diminishing popularity of the tree finally climaxed; and in 1972, the Chessie System transferred ownership of the famed holly tree to Cecil County, Maryland. That episode ended on a sour note when, ostensibly prompted by a vicious energy shortage, Americans were encouraged to refrain from erecting outdoor lighting displays in December of 1973; and the resulting dark Christmas is best forgotten by survivors of that depressing and pessimistic era.

Mercifully, the blackout passed, never to be repeated and Cecil County attempted to maintain the historic tree and surrounding holly tree farm but that, too, eventually hit a snag. By the 1980s, a root disease named armalaria began to envelope the tree; and the disease progressed to the point that prohibited decorating the now-delicate landmark during the Christmas season. Finally, the top half of the tree had to be removed to preserve the determined lower portion that struggled to survive. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the dreadful disease that will eventually consume the tree. Attempting to re-create the spirit of Christmases past, the County erected a tall steel pole that replicated the height of the tree at its peak, immediately next to the surviving trunk and limbs. Light strings were attached to the top and extended outward, creating the profile of the original holly tree. To some casually associated with the site, the demise of the holly tree was inevitable given its age. Perhaps, but a romantic could counter that the tree nearly died of a broken heart after being severed from the railroad that lovingly nurtured it and unselfishly shared its glory with the greater world.

Currently, the holly tree and surrounding park are adorned with lights annually courtesy of the Holly Tree Committee with the support of the Cecil County Historical Society; and several special programs are scheduled during the Christmas Season. Thanks to former B&O Museum Director John Ott and Holly Tree activist Brian Gray, the 50th anniversary of the first tree lighting was marked in December 1997 by a fitting tribute that included a special passenger train of ten Maryland commuter cars and two CSX business cars that operated from the B&O Museum to Jackson.

That continuing effort and nod to history is, of course, possible due to George M. Shriver and his thoughtful, well-placed actions decades ago. Shriver’s respect for the tree and low-key approach to preservation and conservation provide a superior standard to emulate when compared to contemporary “green” initiatives that are frequently compromised by the unsavory motives of manipulative politicians. So take time to visit the Cecil County Holly Tree the next time you journey to Maryland or, if possible, obtain a copy of that 1954 collection of Christmas Music cut by the B&O Glee Club. Viewing the holly tree or listening to that vintage recording brings to life once more the following message, sincerely issued in more civilized times, by a warmly human institution: “The wearing of holly is our way of saying A very Merry Christmas to you and yours from B&O’s 60,000 employees”.