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At 135 years old, the trees of Kimball-Jenkins have been through a lot.
We’re talking over a century and three decades worth of harsh New Hampshire winters, losing all their leaves each fall (which must be the equivalent of having every inpidual hair pulled out one-by-one), and what’s clearly a painful budding process each spring. But that’s just the life of a tree. That and not being able to move at all. Because, well, they’re trees.
But if the American Beachnut, Asian Beachnut and Yellowwood – all planted in 1878 – could talk, they’d tell tall tales of the old days, from Samuel “Sparhawk” Kimball, who specially ordered each one after the property’s mansion was completed, to his last remaining relative in Carolyn Jenkins. In the time since they took root in Concord, the estate has been used as a private residence, a house museum and now stands as an art school.
“They were all little mail-ordered saplings,” said Ryan Linehan, executive director of the estate.
And here’s the secret to keeping them strong after all these years: cables. Since the trees are so tall, wide and just overall massive (literally it would take you days to climb to the top of each one, and you might find a few frightened kitties along the way) the cables help keep the tree in place, especially when it sways in the wind.
The American Beachnut resides in the middle of the driveway and lived through losing a limb five years ago (that just missed the mansion) and an ultrasound to determine its viability. The ultrasound could have doomed the tree, but it’s solid and is still firmly in the ground instead of someone’s fireplace.
“We treat them like (a part of the estate),” Linehan said.
The Asian Beachnut stands on the north side of the mansion and is Linehan’s favorite.
“It just has a very unusual leaf and in the fall, if you break it open, the leaves are sweet,” Linehan said.
As for the Yellowwood, it currently takes up a portion of the lawn in front of the yellow house, the oldest building on the property erected in 1790. It’s not in great shape, but Linehan said they’ll keep it around as long as possible.
“It really doesn’t grow above the Mason-Dixon line,” Linehan said of Yellowwoods. “You don’t see many of those around here, especially that age.”
And we haven’t even mentioned the 300-plus year old Sycamore that greets each guest to enter the estate. Technically it belongs to the city, as that section of North Main Street used to be lined with them, but it still sits on the property. So for that, we’ll include it.
