Stop in for a cup of coffee

The house I grew up in had a Beech tree in the backyard that was estimated to be over 350 years old. It was 4-1/2’ in diameter, 80’ tall and had a spread of 162’

It was researched by the University of Pennsylvania back in the 1970s for a paper on “Penn’s Trees” about trees still in PA that were here before William Penn founded the State. A large branch came down in Hurricane Gloria in 1972 and when they sliced it and counted the rings it showed 317 years...and it was from the upper part of the tree.

It was estimated to be over 50 years old when William Penn first arrived to found the PA colony.

The saddest part of all is that the state simply cut the tree down in 1984 to make way for the new I-476 roadway and trucked it off as waste along with the house we once lived in. Even sadder is that the tree only sat 10’ from the edge of the giant berm they built 300 yards from the road for noise abatement. They could have easily saved it...but they just didn’t care. The plans said it was inside the line, so it was destroyed.

I watched them cut it down. I felt like the Lorax that day and just wanted to lift myself up by my tail and leave the planet of the fools forever.

One of its seedlings, now a tree estimated to be 240 years old, still stands...60’ from where it’s parent once stood.