“I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree.” These words penned by the poet Joyce Kilmer so inspired the superintendent of St. Paul Parks, William LaMont Kaufman, that he designed this iconic fireplace in 1936. Kaufman saw the fireplace as the centerpiece of an arboretum and small woodland that survived the urbanization of the Como Park neighborhood surrounding it. Alfred Joyce Kilmer dropped his first name and began a literary career around 1910, eventually becoming an editor, lecturer, interviewer, and famed poet. At the…
