Avery Oak

The home of William Avery, and the Avery Oak.

The Old Avery Oak Tree was a white oak tree[1] that stood in Dedham, Massachusetts until it was knocked down in 1972. It had a circumference of over 20 ft (6 m) and stood on East Street near the Fairbanks House.[2] It was named for Jonathan Avery, the owner of the tree, who had an estate that was bounded roughly by East Street, Mt. Vernon Street, Barrows Street, and Brookdale Avenue.[3] The Avery family was one of the early settlers of Dedham, arriving in 1650.[3]

By the time the first settlers arrived in Dedham in 1635, the tree was already quite old.[2][3] It was owned by the Dedham Historical Society after being donated by J.W. Clark in 1886.[3][4][2] Clark, who owned the house where the tree was located, also donated a square of land around it extending seven and a half feet from three sides of it, and to East Street on the fourth.[2] The deed also allowed the roots and branches to grow over and under Clark's land.[2]

Today, wood from the tree is used in the chairman of the Board of Selectmen's and the Town Meeting Moderator's gavel.[2] Historical Society president Henry Hildreth also commissioned a chair to be built from the timber.[2] The tree also lives on in the seal adopted by the Town in 1878,[2] and that of the Dedham-Westwood Water District.

  1. ^ https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:1r66j353d Avery Oak 1923.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cite error: The named reference parr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference register was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference tree was invoked but never defined (see the help page).