The Basking Ridge Oak Tree next to the Presbyterian Church was perhaps the most photographed site in New Jersey’s Somerset Hills. Recently, an old image of the tree was discovered in a Basking Ridge Fire Company scrapbook at the THSSH Archives.
The society was not familiar with this image. It does not appear to have been printed on a postcard. Our best guess is that the photo was taken around 1905. The Basking Ridge Fire Company was organized in 1904. The photo was on a page just above the photo of the Brick Academy that we posted late last year. The Brick Academy photo was conclusively dated to 1905 or earlier.
On the oak tree photo, notice the stone wall turns in along the lane leading into the churchyard. There are hitching posts for horses and a telephone/telegraph pole along East Oak Street.
I attended nursery school at the Presbyterian Church next to the Big Oak. Was our school named Oak Twigs? I think so. One day I left my red cardigan zip up sweater near the base of the Big Oak. My mom was mad. We went back in the dark to retrieve it.
Hi Meredith,
Yes, the school was called Oak Twigs. A 1962 news article calls it The Oak Twigs Play School and says the school at the Presbyterian Church is now in its sixth year (Bernardsville News, Apr. 5, 1962, Sect. 3, p. 2). By 1967 it was called the Oak Twigs Nursery School.