Historical roots of Norfolk’s trees are compelling
Growing up in the Larchmont area of Norfolk, I always heard the neighborhood was named that because of the abundance of larch trees here.
I’ve come to find that the trees I thought were larches are not. Larches are one of the few conifers that drop their leaves in fall.
I sent a picture of one of these trees to the Master Gardeners of Norfolk, and they told me the trees were called “Deodar cedar.” They were 100% certain, so now I am too. This species of cedar is native to the hills of the Himalayas, mostly in Nepal and India.
When I thought they were larches, I thought there might be some connection to Ethan Alphonso Allen. He was the father-in-law of Andrew Weir, the man who planted the magnolias on Magnolia Avenue. The southern magnolia is native to the Deep South.
Weir took his bride to Mississippi on their honeymoon to visit his mother. Mary Allen Weir was so enchanted with the trees that she had some shipped back to Virginia. In Virginia we have the sweet bay magnolia, which has smaller leaves and flowers.
Ethan was from Vermont, where larch trees are native. He was also the son of Ethan Allen of Revolutionary War fame. That the trees are cedars opened up another possibility.
Ethan Alphonso Allen’s fatherin-law was Capt. John Johnston. Before it was called Magnolia Grove, he was calling his estate Lebanon because of the many cedar trees growing there. On his tombstone at Elmwood Cemetery, it reads “buried at Lebanon, Norfolk County.”
Their house was where Magnolia meets Jamestown Crescent. It was torn down in 1936 and a new house was built on that site. All the graves were moved to Elmwood in 1925.
I now live in the Larchmont Apartments, where six of these beautiful cedar trees are growing. This property was once on the edge of Johnston’s farm. There are seven more trees along Brunswick Avenue, and several more are scattered throughout our neighborhood.
I was happy with my tree hypothesis until I found an aerial photograph from 1937. The photo plainly shows no trees growing on this property, which means all of them were planted after that.
The only thing I know for sure is that some magnolia trees were planted in 1848 by Andrew and Mary Allen Weir. The magnolia trees I remember from my youth appear to be gone. That makes sense because magnolia trees live to be 80-120 years old. The six or seven large trees there are probably offspring of the original trees.
Of note also is the sequoia tree on Magnolia Avenue. There are several of those throughout our area as well.
According to Norfolk’s city forester Steven Traylor and Lytton Musselman at Old Dominion University, all the redwoods in Norfolk are about 80 years old.
So my theory now is that there was a profusion of tree planting in the late 1930s. This idea leads to Fred Heutte, who started the Botanical Gardens and planted the azaleas there. He was responsible for planting the crepe myrtles lining many of our streets.
Heutte was born in Paris in 1899 to a French father and an American mother. They moved to New Jersey in 1912. He became interested in botany while working in a florist shop on Staten Island in 1917.
After serving in the Army, Heutte went back to school to learn more about horticulture. He worked at many estates as a master gardener and came to Norfolk in 1936, working at the arboretum at Lafayette Park and the Botanical Gardens. He was responsible for planting azaleas and crepe myrtles as well as trees of many species, including my cedars.
So when I walk around my yard and see all the beautiful trees, I thank Fred Heutte.
The Fred Heutte Center at
1000 Botetourt Gardens in Ghent commemorates his life and work.