Massive landmark lured them to buy

October 14, 2001

Three little bonsai trees sit in planters on the front porch dwarfed by California's third-largest Moreton Bay fig tree in the front yard.

Barefoot under the tree, Janie Ogdon balanced on the fig's chest-high roots before climbing onto one of its long, thick limbs and disappearing behind the enormous trunk.

"You haven't lived until you climb a tree every day," said the grandmother of five, after coming back down and slipping into high-heeled sandals.

Ogdon and her husband, Ron, are the new owners of the Spring Valley property that is home to a historic home and the tree, estimated by historians to be at least 127 years old.

The couple bought the place last month, bringing a sense of calm to neighbors, tree lovers and members of several Spring Valley groups who worried that the tree might be felled after the property went on the market last spring.

"Thirty years ago, I drove up this street to look at the tree and I loved it," said Janie Ogdon. After she and Ron married in the summer, the couple happened by a home in Lemon Grove and stopped to admire its big front-yard tree. That's when she told Ron about the bigger tree on Barbic Court.

"I drove him there," she said. The lot had been cleared of debris, the tree was still majestic, the house had been refurbished and everything was for sale.

"I had lived in my old house for 26 years and had no intention of leaving," said Janie Ogdon. "But from the time we saw the house and until we moved in was just six weeks."

While the Ogdons were filling out escrow paperwork, fans of the fig were writing letters to government officials and searching through historical documents to find a way to protect their Ficus macrophylla. The tree was probably planted shortly after the home went up in the early 1870s, according to Spring Valley Historical Society records.

First owned by the McRae family, the home and ranch were later owned by Harrison Albright, one of San Diego's premier architects.

Charles Biggs, a member of the Spring Valley-based Dictionary Hill Citizens Association, contacted the California Register of Big Trees to see if the Barbic Court fig could be a contender for the state list.

Armed with a 50-foot tape measure, Biggs set about getting vital statistics, hoping to topple the two championship figs listed in the registry.

In the final tally, the tree ranked third with a 420-inch girth, 54-foot height, 109-foot canopy spread.

The biggest is in Santa Barbara, measuring 480 inches around, 75 feet high, topped with 181-foot canopy. The second-largest is in San Diego's Balboa Park, measuring 486 inches around, 78 feet high and 123-foot canopy.

Biggs said the keepers of the registry "indicated that if anything happened to the other trees, then this tree could be a runner-up or the champion."

Ogdon said she was a little surprised at the number of people who come and visit the tree, which can be seen from eastbound state Route 94, near the Kenwood Drive exit.

While working on the back part of her acre plot, Ogdon has watched strangers drive into the driveway, get out of the car and clamber onto the tree's roots. Most ask permission, but there are some, said Ogdon, who are just rude.

In part to satisfy people's curiosity, in part to sell some junk, and in part to meet the neighbors, the Ogdons hosted a yard sale, house tour and tree-ogling event this weekend.

Ogdon knows the magnetism of that tree.

"I wanted to buy the house because of the tree. Period," she said. "The house is just a nice addition."