There’s a charm in those old architectural details, isn’t there? Even where the work in question is in an accelerated state of decay — maybe more so. It’s like watching your own time slip into history before your eyes.
Do you recognize this week’s time-stop of decay? If so, please email us.
Last week’s shot was no challenge for two of our ‘Where’ regulars.
Red Bankers Jenn Woods and Pete DeFazio nailed it as a treehouse on the Middletown side of the Cooper Bridge (Route 35), just a few doors east of the span.
What’s unusual about the structure, of course, is that it’s not supported by branches. Instead, the house is built around the trunk.
Property owner Frank Wilton tells redbankgreen he built it last summer for his four kids in a tulip tree, also known as a yellow poplar.
It was a bit of a challenge. The side nearest his house is about five feet above the ground, Wilton says. But because of the severe slope down to the Navesink River, the far side is 15 to 20 feet above the ground.
Wilton says he’s never done something like this before and wasn’t inspired by another tree-through treehouse. Rather, because the tree is “just a large pole, more or less,” with branches starting far above the ground, he found he had to improvise.
Though the roof surrounds the trunk, the treehouse isn’t watertight. “When it rains, the water will just pass through along the trunk,” Wilton says.
Needless to say, it’s a conversation starter for adults, and the kids love it.
“They’re all in and out of it, my kids and the kids in the neighborhood,” he says. “It’s been getting a lot of use.”
