The post oak in front of Brentwood High School, which had been doing poorly for several years, didn’t leaf out this spring and was taken down this week. Resident, Barry Williams, who spear-headed an effort to save it in 2014, estimated it was about 90 years old.
He said it was planted around the time the original high school building opened, in 1927. “They’re very hardy in Missouri, but 90 years, that’s getting up there.”
He said it survived up to last year’s class reunions, but started looking stressed soon after that.
This photo was taken in the late 1930s by Ed Beekman, who lived in the house visible in the photo. The view is from Bridgeport Avenue looking west toward BHS. The Beekmans’ house was completed in 1930, 3 years after the original BHS building, and is still standing. At one time, it served not only as the Beekmans’ residence but as a luncheonette-confectionary for BHS students. The young, bright-green tree in the front lawn of the high school near the left edge of the photo is the post oak. Photo courtesy Barry WilliamsThe oak in 2014.
1 COMMENT
I’m no expert but its decline in health is no doubt to too much root disturbance, earth grading and being walled in by that stone circle. We have the same type of oak out on our farm with no root disturbance approaching 125 years.
I’m no expert but its decline in health is no doubt to too much root disturbance, earth grading and being walled in by that stone circle. We have the same type of oak out on our farm with no root disturbance approaching 125 years.