The T Street Champion Linden

The city's own arborists have written four words into this linden's record that no other linden in their care carries, "City Tree champion of its genus." It stands in a tree box on the sidewalk outside 3819 T Street NW, on a residential block in Burleith, and by the judgement of the people who prune it, it is the best basswood Washington looks after. The numbers behind the note are plain. The trunk measures about 141 centimetres across at chest height, which works out to roughly 4.4 metres round. Laser survey fields in the same record suggest a crown about 22 metres high, spreading over something like 375 square metres. When an arborist checked it on 7 October 2026, its condition went down as Excellent. That is all the paperwork says, and it is worth being clear about what it is. The champion label is the inventory's own wording, an arborist's note rather than the result of a published contest, and the city's record is the only source for this tree. It carries no planting date either. Nobody has dated this linden. If you know when the trees on this stretch of T Street went in, or have an old photograph of the block, tell us. American basswood is a tree of eastern woodland. Finding the city's best one growing out of a square of pavement is half the pleasure of the walk.