Built around 1850-1853, the Rectory of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst was originally the home of bookseller Mark H. Newman. The rectory was later attached to the church by an extension. This extension was recently replaced by an entirely new link between the rectory and church. For many years, in front of the rectory and Grace Church, stood a large Japanese katsura tree, which became an Amherst landmark. It was brought as a seed or seedling from Japan by William S. Clark, founder of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst), and planted in 1877. Dr. Frederick Tuckerman once said that if the rectory ever caught on fire, the tree should be saved even if the building had to be sacrificed. The tree suffered from dangerous rot and was taken down several years ago.