This live oak keeps watch over the oldest building in Fort Worth still standing where it was built: the Van Zandt Cottage. The house belonged to Major Khleber Van Zandt, one of the most influential men in the city's early history, and the land around it was his too. His home and acreage took in ground that is now Trinity Park, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and the Cultural District, so this whole corner of town, museums and gardens included, is one man's former property divided up. The oak is the cottage's companion rather than its subject. The city's heritage register records it as a large live oak beside the house and says nothing about when it took root, so we cannot tell you whether the major sat under it, planted it or never gave it a thought. Nobody has dated it and nobody has published its girth. If you know either, tell us. A second listed live oak grows about 80 metres to the east, in the small parking area off Farmhouse Way, so the two make an easy pair. The Botanic Garden, with its own champion trees, is a short walk south.
Beside the Van Zandt Cottage, Trinity Park, Fort Worth, TXYou can recognise it as the large live oak right beside the Van Zandt Cottage. It stands in Trinity Park; the other listed oak, about 80 metres east, is the one in the parking area off Farmhouse Way.
Free. In Trinity Park, public park ground.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.