SoHo Trees back for its 21st holiday season

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[media-credit name=”Downtown Express photo by John Bayles ” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]

For 21 years, SoHo Square, at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Spring Street, has been occupied with Christmas trees. The company, owned by Scott Lechner, has been cutting, selling, decorating and delivering Christmas trees for over two decades.

The triangular park on the border of SoHo and Hudson Square has been Lechner’s operational base since the early 80s. Lechner, who spends most of his time collecting cash and taking orders from his R.V. parked on Sixth Avenue, began setting up shop last week. The first trees were delivered on Thanksgiving Day. SoHo Trees receives at least one delivery of fresh trees every day during the holiday season.

Most notable are the “Noble Firs” which, according to SoHo Trees employee Jason Vahle, range in size from “four-feet to skies-the-limit.”

“They come from a rain-temperate climate in Oregon and have a strong citrus smell,” said Vahle.

Most important, however, is the fact that a “Noble Fir” is virtually untouched by machinery.

“There are no machines allowed anywhere where they are grown,” said Vahle. “The lumberjacks cut the trees by hand and then mules haul them.”

The mules however don’t haul them all the way to New York City. There are “machines” involved in that journey.

— John Bayles