Berkeley Carroll Tree Bites The Dust
A century-old oak tree in front of Berkeley Carroll School Annex at 762 President Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Park Slope was taken down yesterday. According to the tipster who sent in these photos, this particular tree was the subject of much hand-wringing when the school was originally planning to build the three-story…
A century-old oak tree in front of Berkeley Carroll School Annex at 762 President Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Park Slope was taken down yesterday. According to the tipster who sent in these photos, this particular tree was the subject of much hand-wringing when the school was originally planning to build the three-story gymnasium back in 1996, so much so, that the school had to back away from its original plan to remove the tree then. (From the New York Times story on 11/17/96: “Here’s a tree, it’s been here well over a century, much longer than us,” said Byron Woollen, one of the protesters, “certainly much longer than the whims of a private school for an athletic center.”) One of the workers on site reported that the building itself had been propping up one of the main limbs for some time now. Presumably the whole thing had become a safety hazard.
Boo hoo,Mel.
No ongoing construction sites remove and then re-erect fences to accommodate parking. It has nothing to do with the owner of the site.
The issue is not the tree. The issue is the total lack of regard that the Berkeley Carroll School has for the community. For example, there is no work being done on the weekends at the Carroll Street branch of the school. Yet, three parking spaces are fenced off.
Dear People,
Some gentleness, please. For the woodworkers among us, yes, it is beautiful oak. Each piece removed was hundreds of pounds. The process took eight hours.
Twice in two years, lightning felled branches of the tree. The tree fought back. Two years ago, it skewered–SKEWERED!–a car through the hood, through the engine, into the asphalt street. The car was an hors d’oeuvre on a tree-trunk toothpick. In the tornado this past November 2010, the tree took two more cars, crushed by falling parts.
As it was cut down, the remaining trunk–no branches left–would have made for a 40 foot Park Slope totem poll. Imagine Gowanus indians at the bottom, and then think of the fantasies that might have been carved skywards.
But it was not to be. What remains today is a base tabletop about 20″ off the ground, with more rings than I had time to count.
It was a necessary demise. I had taken to calling it “The Death Tree”, and on a blustery day, if I was feeling particularly despairing, I knew I could simple stand under it and hope for the end.
It was “a tree, just a ___ tree” they way you, and I, are just “a person, a ____ person”.
It was magnificent, and deserves the respect of its years.
Rest in peace.
Something had to give for all my oak furniture, L.
Berkeley Carroll has terrible community relations.
I would I estimate that I have personally cut down at least a thousand oak trees in my life.
Anyone here have a problem with that?
lechacal – they dont care about the tree, they just didnt want any construction on their block or a bigger building – the tree is the strawman – sort of like ED is at AY, and condos are BB park.
this is why i live in a neighborhood with no trees. hippies suck.
I wonder where “Smart Mom” stands on this oh-so-important issue of our day?