Photo by Patrick Olivero
FAIR HAVEN – Fair Haven residents know Buttonwood Drive is a special place.
The L-shaped road near McCarter Pond and Fair Haven Fields is lined with 119 beautiful London planetrees. The trees stand tall above the homes. In summertime the dark green leaves provide a great amount of shade. In the wintertime their knobby shapes stand starkly at attention.
The trees have a story. In 1905, Thomas N. McCarter purchased 421 acres of land from the wife of Edward Kemp, who at one time owned 500 acres of land that is now Rumson and Fair Haven.
McCarter designed an elegant estate on the land with a private pond, stables, swimming pools, gardens and much more. Architects planted rows of London planetrees – a cross between the American sycamore and the Oriental planetree – along a driveway on the property. McCarter sold a 213-acre portion of the land to the Rumson Country Club in 1908.
The story is told in “Destinations Past: Rumson Hill” documentary by Chris Brenner.
More than a century later, the health of many of these trees has come into question, said Shade Tree Commission Chairman Stephen Trudel. Tree experts are assessing these trees closely and making plans to keep the character they provide intact. Trudel said the Shade Tree Commission does not currently maintain trees, due to budget constraints. The borough council governs trees on private property.
Photo by Patrick Olivero
The Two River Times asked Buttonwood residents what they love most about the street they call home.
Fair Haven Councilman Chris Rodriguez said his family’s vantage point of the trees is unique. “We sit at the end of the street and when sitting on our porch we get a priceless view looking back down along the tree-lined street. When driving to our house, it feels like a secret passage to our home. It’s a throwback to a different time.
“We feel like we are part of the setting as the row of trees leads up to and through our property and out the backyard to where the storied bridge over Ridge Road used to be. We have a special relationship with the trees, having nine throughout our yard,” Rodriguez said.
His 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth said, “The trees provide a canopy in the summer. It feels like a magical tunnel.” And 12-year-old Isabella said she loves “the history and story of them.”
Jim Armstrong, a 23-and-a-half-year resident of the street, said he loves his view of Buttonwood. “It’s just a beautiful street,” he said. It’s where he raised his four children. The location was convenient for his young family, as it is just a few blocks from Sickles School and the old Corner Café where they would enjoy a stack of pancakes in the morning.
Susie Whyman, a Buttonwood resident since 1963, said the old trees on Buttonwood Drive are one of the few things in her life that have remained a constant. “We knew this was a neighborhood that we wanted to be a part of,” she said.
Reflecting on her years on Buttonwood, the now 82-year-old said, “It’s the street that my children rode to school on, on their bicycles. My husband and I always took at least one walk on it every day that we were home,” she added, “and we walked it in health.”
Her husband was diagnosed with leukemia and passed away five years ago. “But that daily walk during his illness was the most restorative time of day for both of us,” said Whyman.
She likes to call Buttonwood her “Cathedral Street.” A historian who spent time in England writing about history, Whyman said as she walked from nearby Linden Drive down Buttonwood Drive, she felt as if she was “walking down a maze” of a large cathedral. To her, the trees on both sides of the road resembled flying buttresses. They are “like bones of a cathedral as you’re walking along.” And when daytime lighting changes, it’s like lighting changes in a cathedral through stained glass.
“To have the trees on one end and Fair Haven Fields on the other, we just felt that that house was such a wonderful place,” she said, adding she hopes to remain a resident of Buttonwood Drive as long as she can.
This story was originally published in the Jan. 23, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
Correction: This story was updated on Feb. 4 to clarify that the Shade Tree Commission’s role. It does not currently maintain trees.
