200 Year Old Sugar Maple Tree
Did you know that our town had a Sugar Maple Tree that is over 200 years old? Do you know where it was? It's history? What has happened to the land it stood on? Read on and we'll tell you about it's history and where this tree was located.
Our Sugar Maple tree was well known in the area as far back as the turn of the century - that's the 19th century, not the 20th. It stood on 400 acres of farm land owned by the Chilvers family. The land bordered Royce Road, and included the area now owned by the Naperville Park District at the intersection of Naperville Road and Royce Road. It also included the area where the Maple Park Shopping Center now stands on the northwest corner of Boughton and Weber Roads.
In the early 1900s the tree was the site of social gatherings. Up until about 1920, during the warmer months, a wooden floor was put down, lanterns were hung from its branches and evenings of dancing were enjoyed by the people all around the area of DuPage and Wheatland. Admission was 50 cents and that included all the beer you could drink! In the winter, there was ice skating, again under the lanterns. The tree sits in a low area and pooling water created a natural ice rink.
The farm was sold in the early 1970s, some land to the Naperville Park District (as mentioned above), other portions to a developer, and some was designated to be preserved as open area.
In the month of October 1990, the tree became famous as two local schoolteachers and their students waged a campaign to keep it from being taken down when the shopping center at the corner of Boughton and Weber Roads was being built. A fence was erected around the tree and it was designated for saving, however a landscaper's laborer clearing brush from the area, took it upon himself to climb the fence and he sawed off two of the distinctive swooping branches that ran for 20 to 30 feet along the ground. (A third such branch had been dismembered from the tree three months prior by vandals.)
So, what was the outcome of this? The laborer was fired. The landscaper and developer both made reparations to the villages, contributing 250 trees to be planted around the village and deeding to the village the 1.2 acre parcel that the stands on. The land is now part of the DuPage River Parkway.
Excerpted from Bolingbrook Keeps Making History, Volume 3, compiled by James D. Bingle for the Bolingbrook Historic Preservation Commission and articles within from The Met and The Chicago Tribune, October 1990.
While the tree no longer looked as it did years ago before the "chainsaw massacre" made it famous in local and Chicago newspapers, it was still alive during our Village’s 50th Anniversary in 2015. Shortly after it began to decline and sadly was taken down in the summer of 2017.
For the full articles and much more information about Bolingbrook's history, you can purchase the history booklets at any commission event or at the Village Hall. Inquire at the Executive Offices, the western entrance to the building.
For the full articles and much more information about Bolingbrook's history, you can purchase the history booklets at any commission event or at the Village Hall. Inquire at the Executive Offices, the western entrance to the building.
