David and Elizabeth Chambers arrived in this area in 1848, members of the very early pioneer Chambers family. During the family’s migration west, they brought with them fruit tree saplings from an Oregon orchardist, Henderson Luelling, and planted them on the family homestead on what is now the Panorama retirement community. One of the saplings grew into a magnificent and well-known black heart cherry tree. In this photograph from 1925, David Chambers’s son, Olympia mayor A.H. Chambers, stands by the tree, which is in full bloom. The tree succumbed to old age soon after this photograph was taken.
Vibert Jeffers photograph, 1925, Susan Parish collection, Washington State Archives