Chevy Chase DC lost a neighborhood fixture on Monday: a gargantuan oak tree thought to be older than the United States.
Located on a private property on the 2800 block of Northampton Street, Northwest, the tree, referred to by many simply as “The Northampton Oak,” has been treasured by the neighborhood for decades. In 1940, neighborhood planners even slightly curved the street to accommodate its roots.
“When they were paving the road, they excluded parts of the tree’s root zone to go around it, and that’s uncommon on private land,” a field manager for the nonprofit Casey Trees, Nick Smalley, told Washingtonian in an interview last summer. “It takes 150 to 200 years for an oak to get to heritage size, so think about all the people who would have had a say in the use of that property over 200 years. The fact that every single one of them valued that tree enough to not mess with it is really special.”
Alas, time had come for the beloved oak, which arborists had said was on its last legs and may have had interior rotting, according to WUSA. While no one was hurt in the fall, WUSA reports that the tree did hit a nearby home and took down some power lines with it. In an interview with the TV station, a neighbor of the tree, Gary Thompson, called the tree “the centerpiece of our block.” “This tree has provided us canopy and enjoyment for many, many years,” said Thompson, who also told the station that he hopes some of the wood can be repurposed into furniture.
Last summer, the Northampton Oak was a contender in a local search for the “biggest tree in DC,” hosted by Casey Trees. While it ultimately lost to a colossal chestnut oak in Battery Kemble Park, the oak’s girthy trunk still measured in at roughly 19 feet in circumference.
That said, the Northampton Oak did have its moment of arboreal glory in 2006 when the Washington Post reported it as the winner of the same contest held that year, stating that it stood at 105 feet tall. But that wasn’t the first time the tree made headlines.
In a 1998 article, which described the tree as “stunning” and “a picture of leafy vitality,” the Post reported on concerns for the future of tree after it suddenly lost a limb that summer. In the same article, the Post said an expert estimated the tree to be more than 400 years old, noting that “it would have been sprouting its leaves with their characteristic rounded lobes before the first English settlers reached this area.”
Correction: An earlier version of the story stated that the tree fell during storms that happened on Monday evening. However, the tree’s neighbor, Gary Thompson, says he heard it fall on Monday morning, shortly before noon.
