Wellesley's Elm Park Loses Big Maple

A large sugar maple was blown over during high winds Thursday afternoon in Elm Park, narrowly missing a park bench, making a sound one man mistook for a car accident.

"I didn't hear it, because I'm deaf," said Frank Berger, who said he and another employee of Green's Hardware at 308 Washington St. in Wellesley Hills were working when the tree fell over. His co-worker, he said, thought the sound was a car crash.

"Thankfully, nobody was sitting there. Yesterday it was probably too windy for them to be out," Berger said.

Berger said he's been working at the hardware store for five years. The front window of the shop looks directly out at where the tree used to be.

This morning, a crew of DPW workers used a large truck with a hydraulic claw to lift sections of the trunk as they cut it up with chainsaws at about 9 a.m.

The tree had already had most of its limbs cut off the previous day, and smaller branches with leaves littered the area around the clock tower, next to where the tree used to stand.

Paul Cramer came out to watch the men work, with his dog, Jake, along for a walk.

A gentleman who said he lived nearby and would only identify himself as Ray also came out to have a look at the DPW's morning task.

"It's a pretty park. They do a nice job of maintaining it," he said.

Cramer said another tree was knocked down near the Leo J. Martin Golf Course in Weston near the Wellesley Town Line that had backed up traffic headed toward the Mass. Pike this morning. By about 10 a.m., however,  the only sign of that incident was a freshly cut stump facing into Concord Street.