Hundreds of community members fight to preserve Longan Elementary’s symbolic oak tree

In front of the 60-year-old original building, R.C. Longan Elementary School’s “mighty oak” still proudly stands. But soon, much to the disdain of Longan alumni, the tree will be cut down to make way for a new parking lot.

The towering willow oak tree has existed since the school first opened in 1965 and has witnessed generations of students and teachers pass through the school’s front doors. To Longan’s families and alumni, the tree is a “timeless symbol” of the fond memories and forever relationships created at Longan for decades.

“The tree in front of Longan represents so much to so many,” said Nathanial Mason, who attended Longan from 1996 until 2002. “There are so many memories of kickball games, field days, exciting moments of learning. . . My heart and soul lies within that plot of land and special brick building.”

But with the rebuild of the Longan campus nearing completion, the oak tree will need to be removed along with the old building – a decision that was “extremely difficult” but necessary for Henrico Schools to make, said director of facilities Susan Moore.

With the structure of the new, larger building already completed on the other side of the campus, what is now the front entrance of the original building will be converted into an expanded parking lot, which will accommodate the additional 250 students the new school will hold.

The oak tree sits right in the middle of a number of planned parking spaces, which led to the project’s design team slating the tree for removal after schematic designs of the new campus were approved by the Henrico School Board back in 2023. The tree is too big to safely relocate, said Moore, and project leaders worried that even if saved, it would not be able to withstand the stress of the parking lot construction nearby.

“Anytime you rebuild a site, unfortunately there’s an opportunity where you’re going to have issues with existing landscaping,” Moore said. “And we have to make 50-year decisions. Could that tree last another 50 years? . . . That's the thing I think a lot of our community needs to remember, is we’re not just making an immediate decision.”

More than 400 community members have signed a petition created by Mason asking for HCPS to reconsider the removal of the tree. Alumni cited the emotional significance of the tree along with its importance to the campus’ natural environment.

“The great willow tree was such a huge part of my time at Longan,” said Rachael Wharton, an alumnus who attended the school in the 1990s. “We welcomed our P.E. teacher home from her tour in Afghanistan and while she was gone, we tied a huge yellow bow around the tree to remember her and keep her in our thoughts during her time away. The bow was battered and weathered, but we never took it down until she came home.”

Kristi Kinsella, the Brookland District school board representative, said that while she supported saving the tree, she understood the design team’s decision and the need for a new parking lot.

“I was thinking about, where is everybody going to park at a school event at this new school?” she said.

But Mason said that he believes parking will be a “non-issue” for Longan, with the new building located on the other side of the campus, and that the nearby residential neighborhood has “plenty of street parking.”

Despite not being able to save the school’s most prominent oak tree, Moore said that the project team is considering ways to save another large oak tree located near the back edge of the old cafetorium building. HCPS also plans to keep the large grove of trees near Longan’s original sign intact as well as another grove of trees at the back of the school.

While a number of trees will need to come down, HCPS plans to plant 189 new trees, including four white oak trees, on Longan’s campus to maintain tree foliage as much as possible.

But community members say that planting new seedlings does not address the issue of removing Longan’s most memorable and important tree.

“Generations of Longan alum have been around through the life of this tree. It’s just been a staple to the school for decades,” said Wharton. “There are so many people advocating [who] have followed the plans for Longan since 2022.”

The new school initially was set to open in January of 2026, but the opening was delayed until the fall of 2026. Once the school opens, the old building will be demolished and construction will continue on other aspects of the campus. 

Mason said that after hundreds of emails sent to school board and county officials, community members still have not received a meaningful acknowledgement of their concerns.

“Unfortunately, the school board and others in the county like [the board of] supervisors have failed to respond in any way to our many and reasonable requests,” he said. “It is very difficult to understand why no one at HCPS is willing to seriously investigate options or seem to really care that its removal negatively impacts so many.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.