Marie Barkley remembers the day a visitor — a man
literally off the street — walked through her husband Maurice’s tree house
complex, descended the final ladder, stood on the lawn, and applauded.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Both the
Barkleys know the phenomenon well: people driving by their Henrietta home will
suddenly slow down, stop, and turn around, usually with at least one child’s
face pressed up against the back windows. And Maurice Barkley, never one to
turn a child away from an opportunity to explore his treetop town, waves them
on in.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Barkley
built his first tree structure, a platform with a rope bridge, five years ago
at the request of his granddaughter. “And I said, ‘Hey, this is fun,'” Barkley
says. Retired from his career as a commercial artist, he soon gave himself over
to a tree house mania. He looked around at all the pine, maple, and locust
trees he had planted when he bought the house in 1958, and started to see
possibilities. “Luckily,” he says, “I overplanted.”
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Look
up in his yard now and you will see eight treetop structures — including a
church, an observatory deck, and several little houses — six rope bridges,
and a spiral staircase. More are on the way. Barkley is working on a structure
to look like Buddha. The door will be in his belly.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Barkley
makes all the structures in his basement workshop during the winter, takes them
out in pieces, and assembles them in the trees in the spring. All the
structures are hung with cable from tree limbs and trunks — nothing is nailed
into the trees because the trees continue to grow.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Barkley
is a self-taught tree house builder. When he first started, he says, there were
only a few books published on the subject, and none were complete. A friend
photocopied a couple of pages for him on rope diameters from an engineering
textbook. Barkley started with those, and used imagination and experimentation
for the rest. There was some trial and error. His first spiral staircase, he
says, “was rickety and unsafe and too tight.” So he ripped it out and built it
again.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Passionate
about the safety of his little (and sometimes big) visitors, Barkley makes sure
all his structures are overly strong. He uses aircraft cable to hang the
houses. Before the tree houses are open to visitors this year he will have
restrung all the rope bridges, which can each support 1,000 pounds, he says.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย He
designs the houses on his computer using a drawing program called FreeHand, and
once the designs are perfected, he builds them out of pressure-treated outdoor
wood. Once just an avid amateur, Barkley is now armed with a binder full of
plans, directions, and photos. He hopes it’s enough for a coffee-table book
devoted entirely to tree houses.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The tree
house town looks like a fairy land. It’s decorated with richly colored paint,
lattices, morning glory in the summer, dozens of lanterns at night, an
enormous, broken clock face (“because time stands still up there,” Barkley
says), rope swings, and little baskets hooked up to pulleys. “I’ve been guilty
of daydreaming all my life,” he says.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Inside
the town’s two teahouses he’s decorated with jeweled mirrors, curtains, and tea
sets. His wife Marie, a dressmaker, one day put some old hats, purses, and
shawls in the houses. She then watched their two little neighbors dress up and
play house. “They went to church, they went shopping, and they went to have
tea,” she says.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The tree
houses are built for children. Adults can safely walk on the platforms, stairs,
and bridges, but everything is scaled for children, he says. Railings, for
example: Adults can use them but might find them a little low for comfort. For
the pull-up basket (“so you can get your juice box,” he says), he used “more
pulley than you need” just for kids’ amusement.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย And
while his grandchildren, now ages 11 to 17, can still appreciate the houses,
Barkley keeps building and tweaking for the smaller kids who visit all through
the spring and summer — school groups, neighbors, friends, strangers who are
pulled in from the street.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
Barkleys have guest books full of children’s excited comments, mostly thanking
them for building such a “cool” “fun” and “really big” tree fort.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย But
Marie estimates that in another four or five years, when her husband isn’t
confident that he can keep the tree houses and bridges safe to his standards,
they will all come down. He calls his handiwork “ephemeral.” But in the
meantime, he keeps making improvements to his treetop fairytale — to the delight
of both scheduled visitors and passersby.
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2004.
