The Red Oak of the Wilhelminapark

This park exists to sell building plots. The ground was the De Vlijt estate, mostly heath. In 1825 its owner Ameshof built the villa Marialust and dug the large pond that still lies in front of it. Sixty years later the company that had the land wanted to sell it off for villas, and worked out that people pay more for a plot beside a park than a plot beside a field. So in 1885 they laid out the road pattern, and made a walking park around the pond that was already there. It worked well enough that in 1889 they offered the roads and the park to the town, which took them. In August 1890 the council asked the king for permission to name it after Princess Wilhelmina on her tenth birthday. He said yes, and from 17 August 1890 it has been the Wilhelminapark. The register puts this red oak between 1860 and 1870, which places it before the park and inside the estate that preceded it. Red oak is an American species, planted here for its autumn colour, and in a good year it is the reddest thing in Apeldoorn.