May 17, 2012Jamestown Oak
Located on Buffalo Street, 200 feet west of Lakeview Avenue
The white oak on Buffalo Street beside the Christ First United Methodist Church was the first tree in Jamestown named to the New York State Historic Tree Registry. About 75 Feet tall, this massive specimen has a crown spread of over 110 feet and a trunk circumference of 14 feet. An arborist's core sample has confirmed this tree sprouted about 1820, within a decade of the appearance of the first log cabin home that began the settlement of Jamestown. The path that wound past, first called the Dexterville Road before eventually becoming Buffalo Street, was to lightly traveled to endanger the sapling and the tree was too small to attract the attention of the developing wood-based industries that would help bring prosperity to the community. Somehow, through good fortune and caring citizens, the oak not only survived but came to be cherished as the city’s oldest living resident and witness to its history.
Its significance was formally recognized with the placement of a historical marker on Arbor Day 1996.
JAMESTOWN OAK
NAMED TOP THE NEW YORK STATE HISTORIC TREE REGISTRY, THE WHITE OAK AT THIS SITE SPROUTED ABOUT 1820 AND SAW THE GROWTH OF THE COMMUNITY.