top of page

Watts House Heritage Trees

tree1.jpg

Tree #1
Western Red Cedar – Giant Arbor-vitae (Thuja plicata)
Approximately 112 years old


This tree appears in a picture of the Watts Family’s new home in 1902 and where it is only 2-3 ft high at that time.

This is important in documenting that this tree was part of the Watts’ original landscaping. 


The Western Cedar is an evergreen coniferous tree which means it doesn’t lose it "leaves” or green foliage in the fall and winter but stays green all year long.


The Cedar tree is extremely healthy and should stand for many years.


Height: 91 ft, Crown Spread: 33 ft, Circumference: 45.3”

Tree #2 and #4 Pacific Yew or Western Yew (Taxus brevifolia)
Front and back yard.

At approximately 90-100 years old, these are very special
trees.  Yews are thought to have descended from Paleotaxus
Rediviva yew which was found imprinted on Triassic era fossils laid down more than 200,000,000 years ago. The Yew is an evergreen conifer.

The chemotherapy drug paclitaxel (taxol), used in breast, ovarian, and lung cancer treatment, can be derived from Taxus brevifolia and other species of yew. As it was already becoming scarce when its chemotherapeutic potential was realized around the 1990s, the Pacific yew was never commercially harvested from its habitat at a large scale; the widespread use of the paclitaxel was enabled circa 2003 when a semi-synthetic pathway was developed from extracts of cultivated yews of other species. (Arno, Stephen F.; Hammerly, Ramona P. (2020) [1977]. Northwest Trees: Identifying & Understanding the Region's Native Trees (field guide ed.). Seattle: Mountaineers Books. pp. 181–186. ISBN 1-68051-329-X. OCLC 1141235469)


 
Height: 45 ft, rown Spread: 55 ft,  Circumference: 57”   

tree2.jpg
tree4.jpg
tree3.jpg

Tree #3
Common Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)
Approximately 100 years old


This was planted during the time the Watts Family lived in their home. It has many cavities (round circles) where limbs were removed in past decades.  

 

The Chestnut is a deciduous tree which means it loses its leaves in the fall.  Our tree is healthy despite its scarred trunk.  Even though this species of tree produces “nuts” in the fall, you don’t want to eat them as they will make you ill.  

 

Height: 58 ft, Crown Spread: 37ft, Circumference: 30”

tree5.jpg

Tree #5
Douglas Fir or Green Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Approximately 112 years old


While we do not have an early picture of this tree, its age suggests it was also planted during the construction, or early years of, the Watts Family's new home. 


This is an evergreen coniferous tree which means it doesn’t lose it “leaves” or green foliage in the fall and winter.  It stays green all year long.


The Douglas Fir trees that grow in the Pacific Northwest can grow to be hundreds of years old and are some of the biggest fir trees in the world due to our damp, mild climate.


Height: 58 ft, Crown Spread: 37 ft, Circumference: 30”

In order to be designated a Heritage Tree it must be of significant historical value either tied to a City or Person or Event.   Our trees were either already on the homestead property of the Watts or planted around the time the house was being built in 1902.
 
There is a picture in the Watts House of tree #1 which was taken in approximately 1915.  In this picture the Cedar tree is about 4-6 ft tall.  It now stands at 91 ft.

​

Watts Family  |  Watts Family Grows |  Watts House Today |  Watts House Interior  | Heritage Trees

bottom of page