What is the oldest tree in Chadds Ford?
The oldest tree in Chadds Ford is the Brandywine Sycamore, also called the Lafayette Sycamore, an American sycamore of roughly 400 years standing beside the Gideon Gilpin House in Brandywine Battlefield Park, off Baltimore Pike. Union County College, which grew a seedling from its seed in 1997, records the parent as dating from about 1609 and measuring 220 inches around and 111 feet tall, which made it 168 years old on the day of the battle in 1777. The farmhouse it stands beside is where the Marquis de Lafayette, shot through the leg, was taken to be treated. A 1987 bicentennial marker sits at its foot. The park grounds are free to walk; the house interior is seen on timed guided tours only.
Brandywine Battlefield Park is off Baltimore Pike in Chadds Ford, roughly 40 km from central Philadelphia and about an hour by road. There is no public transport to it, so this is a car trip. The grounds are free to walk and the tree stands outside the Gideon Gilpin house, so seeing it costs nothing and takes minutes. The house interior is a different matter: timed guided tours only, Thursday to Sunday, so check the park's hours before you build a day around it. The battlefield is a National Historic Landmark covering the fighting of 11 September 1777, and the Gilpin farmhouse is where Lafayette was brought after a musket ball went through his leg. The sycamore beside it was, on Union County College's record, already 168 years old that afternoon. A bicentennial marker placed in 1987 stands at its base. The coordinates here mark the house rather than the trunk, because no tree-level fix has been published, but the two stand a yard apart, so nothing about that will cost you a search.
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