Big old oak on The Square is now just a memory

The old oak on The Square is no more.

The day after Christmas, Washington city crews manned a bucket truck and began to carefully cut branches and limbs piece by piece around the sides of the tree.

It took two days to reduce the massive 60- year-old oak to a single thick trunk, which was cut to pieces this week. The stump will be ground down, and new evergreen planting will fill the brick circle.

The Washington City Council voted to remove the dying oak tree from the center of The Square and to replace it with new landscaping after tree experts and landscapers recommended cutting the oak down and also removing a large, unsightly holly tree near the front of The Square.

The removal of the oak tree was set for just after Christmas to lessen the disruption of shopping.

The Square will be landscaped with new trees and plantings, according to a plan developed by the Downtown Development Authority.

At a recent Washington City Council meeting, landscape designer Robert Aiken described the plan to renovate The Square. "In the plan that the DDA has approved," Aiken said, "we're going to take the big oak down, grind the stump down, leave the brick wall around it and mound the soil and plant three nice-size multi-stem evergreen trees."

After the Washington City Council voted to re-landscape The Square, city workers began the task of cutting down the great oak tree that has been a landmark in Washington for more than 60 years. It took several days to dismantle the tree limb by limb, and workers were still carving away at the massive trunk this week.

The new evergreens will create a new centerpiece for The Square, Aiken said. "Then on the four corners of the brick pad, we're going to plant four good-sized, ten-inch willow oaks, which will, with some TLC, grow quickly to create a canopy of shade even larger than the old oak."

There will be other plantings under the trees and a system of lighting, too, he said.

The demise of the tree, planted in the 1940s, temporarily leaves The Square looking empty. "I hate to see the old tree go," said one long-time Washington resident, "but we knew it had to be cut down. Life goes on."

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