Landscape Information
Located on Johns Island just outside of Charleston, this approximately two-acre park provides the setting for this 400–500-year-old sprawling live oak tree. The iconic landmark has served as a gathering site for local communities, including the Gullah/Geechee peoples, for generations.
In 1717 Abraham Waight acquired the property on which the oak stands, incorporating the land into a rice plantation, then known as “The Point.” In 1810 following the marriage of decedent Martha Waight and Justus Angel, the plantation and tree was renamed, “Angel.”
In the early twentieth century during the era of segregation, the tree was accessible to all. Primary school teachers, including noted educator and civil rights activist Septima Poinsette Clark, often brought African American students to picnic under its boughs.
In 1959 the Mutual Land and Development Corporation acquired the property and leased the tree to the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, who engaged experts to steward the specimen. In 1964 a real estate company purchased the property, during which time the Magnolia Garden Club cared for the tree until the late 1970s. Following incidents of vandalism, the tree was fenced-off until 1991 when the park was established. In 2013, after a multi-year grassroot campaign, the Lowcountry Land Trust acquired 35 contiguous acres of woodlands, previously slated for development.
Today the relatively level park is defined by a perimeter fence and is accessed by an unpaved road. The namesake oak, which stands 65 feet tall and has a circumference of 25.5 feet at breast height, commands the park’s southern section. Its broad, horizontally oriented canopy shades an area of 17,000 square feet, with several limbs meeting the ground plane. The tree supports numerous species of flora and fauna, including resurrection ferns growing on its branches. North of the specimen is a grove of younger deciduous trees interspersed with picnic tables and benches.
