Thomas and Mary Folliard, the owners of a home at 29 South Water Street, notified two Edgartown boards last week that they will change their building plans, to leave a beloved 177-year-old pagoda tree undisturbed.
The tree, carried back from China in a flower pot by sea captain Thomas Milton in 1837, is among the oldest and largest pagoda trees in the United States.
The town conservation commission first approved, and then bowing to public pressure, voted to reconsider plans for a new two-story, two-car carriage house style garage to go along with a large home restoration project and a new pool on the quarter-acre lot currently assessed at $7.7 million. Mr. Folliard is the CEO of CarMax, Inc. Although consultants had assured town board members that the tree would be adequately protected and had devised an elaborate system to nurture its root system, town residents remained fearful that the tree might be harmed.
In appearances before the historic district commission on December 2, and the conservation commission on December 3, architect Patrick Ahearn said the owners had scaled back their plans, and now intend to rebuild a one-car garage on the existing foundation. The new plans will not require any digging or disturbance of the soil around the massive tree’s roots.