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In 1873 members of the graduating class planted a “circle of pines”—really Norway spruce—between present-day Ford Chapel and Newton Observatory. One tree was planted for each of the fifteen members. According to legend, as a class member died, so too died a tree. By October 1935 only two trees were left, and only two members of the class remained living. It was then that the class of 1915 planted fifteen red pines in a circle 50 feet in diameter as a memorial to both the classes of 1873 and 1915. An arc of three of these still stood in 2004.

In the first decades of the twentieth century tradition asserted that if a student held hands with his girl in the center of the circle on a clear night illuminated by a full moon, his wish to gain her heart would come true.

[Excerpt from "Through All the Years: A History of Allegheny College"
by Jonathan E. Helmreich, Emeritus Professor of History and College Historian]