A brief but intense storm on Monday felled an historic tree in Montclair’s Anderson Park that was estimated to be about 250 years old.
The massive white oak, called the Olmsted Oak after the famous family of landscape architects who designed the park, provided a leafy refuge for wildlife and shade for numerous weddings, picnics, classes and musical performances over the decades.
“We are utterly heartbroken,” said Lisanne Renner, co-founder and historian of Friends of Anderson Park, a non-profit conservancy. The 15-acre Essex County park is on the State and National Register of Historic Places.
The felled Olmsted Oak in Montclair’s Anderson Park before it was cleared away. Photo: Courtesy of Toni Martin
Photos of the tree posted on social media show it split at the trunk, and badly decomposed inside. Following cleanup this week, the stump—now adorned with a sweet tribute—is all that remains.
Remembrances poured in online. “That tree has held so many children in her arms,” said Alex VanInwegen, 29, who said she spent many hours in the tree’s shade with her friends while growing up.
The tree was a popular gathering spot. Each June, musicians and patrons gathered underneath for a chamber music performance called “Under the June Moon.” In the summer of 2022, actor Joseph Smith portrayed Frederick Law Olmsted there to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth, part of a nationwide tribute sponsored by the National Association for Olmsted Parks.
Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons, John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., designed 355 parks in the U.S.—most famously Central Park—and many arboretums and college campuses. Perhaps the largest number of his parks are in New Jersey, where Frederick senior helped create the Essex County park system, the first in the country.
Olmsted-designed parks in the Garden State include Brookdale Park, Weequahic Park, Watsessing Park, Branch Brook Park, Eagle Rock Reservation, Mills Reservation, Glenfield Park, South Mountain Reservation (now also home to a magical Fairy Trail) and Maplewood’s Memorial Park, which are all in Essex County. The firm also designed the Passaic County Park System, which includes Garret Mountain Reservation and Weasel Brook Park and the Union County Park System, including Warinanco Park. A bust of Frederick Law Olmsted stands on the lakefront in Branch Brook Park.
John Charles Olmsted designed Anderson Park, and took an iconic photo of the oak tree in 1904. Renner said that the tree’s demise reinforces how important it is to keep replanting trees in Anderson Park, a key focus of the park’s mission. Since 2006, her group has planted more than 300 trees in the park.
To volunteer or plant a legacy tree, visit Friends of Anderson Park.
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