‘The Old Lady’ Of Kensington, A Record-Holding Tree, Comes Down

Janet Buxton posing alongside ‘The Old Lady,’ a record-setting sugar maple outside her home in Kensington. (Credit Todd Bookman/NHPR)

When Janet Buxton, her parents and her 11 siblings moved into a Kensington farmhouse in 1954, the sugar maple out front was already massive.

Sixty-seven years later, it’s an institution, a national record-holder, and, as of Monday, now becoming a leafy memory.

“I call her the Old Lady,” said Buxton.

After surviving centuries of New England weather, and no shortage of children trying to climb it, the sugar maple that has stood in front of Buxton’s home sustained catastrophic damage in a recent windstorm.

Read the rest of the story at New Hampshire Public Radio’s website.