What is the oldest tree in Brunswick, Georgia?
The oldest tree in Brunswick is Lover's Oak, a southern live oak standing in the middle of Albany Street just south of Prince Street, in the Old Town historic district. The city dates it to the twelfth century, roughly nine hundred years, with no ring count or growth rate behind the figure, so read it as the age Brunswick has always used rather than a measurement. Ten main limbs branch low off a trunk cited at thirteen feet through, low enough to see how they carry their own weight. The street was laid around the tree instead of through it, which is the reason most people stop. It is free, unfenced and reachable at any hour.
Brunswick's Old Town historic district is a grid of streets and squares laid out in the eighteenth century, and Albany Street runs through the middle of it. The oak sits in the roadway just south of Prince Street with traffic passing on both sides, so park on a side street and walk the last block rather than trying to stop beside it. There is no fence, no fee and no gate; this is public street furniture in the most literal sense the phrase allows. Ten main limbs branch low from the trunk, which is what gives the tree its shape and what makes it worth standing under rather than driving past. One of the ten came off in 2015 when a semi-truck hit it, and the wound is part of what you see. Southern live oaks hold their leaves through winter and exchange them in spring, so no month is the wrong one. What coastal Georgia does have is a hard summer, which is an argument for going early in the day rather than for going in another season.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.