I was cleaning out my garage recently when I found an old box full of all the books I used to read as a child. Including a big collection of the
Magic Tree House series. As I flipped through the pages and was hit with a flood of nostalgia, I realized in all my years i've never once seen an actual treehouse. Despite it being ubiquitous in children's media like this series, Dragon Tales, Codename Kids Next Door etc
My question to you is, did you or anyone you know ever have a treehouse when you were a kid?
33 comments
My childhood best friend did. But it was basically just a platform, not something big and elaborate like you sometimes see in tv and movies.
I got my first tetanus shot because of our tree house. Good times.
Yes, my best friend had one and I was afraid to go in it because it always had a bunch of bugs in it.
yes, my dad built us one. It was between two pine trees, so maybe not what you think of when you think tree house, but it was up in the air
Not a private one, but there was a tree in the words that had boards on some branches that we all used.
Yes my family had a treehouse. My dad and grandfather built it.
Yes, but our entire neighborhood group (9 kids) couldn’t all fit in it.
I kinda did? We didn’t have any good trees in our yard so my dad built a wooden tree house and just stuck it on stilts. It was closer to a playground platform with a roof but we called it a treehouse.
My grandpa built us one when I was about 5. We were wild over it for, well, the rest of the summer. And then basically never used it again.
Yeah I had two friends that did but both treehouses were only elevated ~5ft
My husband and kids built one in our woods between three trees. It is a platform with railings, a ladder, and a pulley system. No walls or roof though because it would fill full of bugs and critters. The kids have now outgrown it, which makes me sad.
Yes, my grandpa built us one that was two stories with a slide and a pole. It was amazing
My neighbors son had a fort at the base of tree…one of the walls was the rail from a crib, so it was great for playing cops and robbers. That was the closest I got to a tree house—lots of great memories but it was on the ground.
More like a couple tree “platforms” with plywood railings and what not.
It was in the front yard though cause that was the only tree big enough… and we only had it one summer. My brother peed out of it when my dad’s business partner and wife were coming up the driveway for a dinner party. End of treehouse.
In the 70s my friends up the block had a huge elaborate amazing treehouse! I was the only girl on the street, they were twins, Steve and Scott, and then there was also Sean and Steve(yes another Steve) but we all played all day in that treehouse. Mostly ‘shot’ each other with our cap guns.
Good times.
My husband and FIL built an amazing treehouse for our kids. I don’t think any of my friends had one growing up.
My grandfather built one for my uncle before I was born. It had large beams and was very heavy duty. They had that house till I was a teenager, it became mine.
It had a ladder to go up and a pole to come down, no roof though.
We called it a treehouse, but it wasn’t in a tree. It was a little wooden house on stilts, with a slide and a sandbox beneath it.
We had a platform around the maple tree, about 5′ up. I’m guessing the height, distances were different then.
I didn’t have a treehouse. But my grandparent’s (where I spent after school, summers when school was out, etc) built me like a little house on their property that me and my friends played in. I guess it would be considered like a kid’s clubhouse? That was the closest thing that I or my friends had to a treehouse.
I had a treehouse as a kid
Yep! When my brother and I were maybe 7 & 9 or so, my dad “helped us” build a tree house. It was expanded and improved a bit over the years. By the end it had a full solid floor and walls, 2 rooms (well, one a glorified closet), doors, a window, and a (mostly) watertight roof. My brother and I could camp out there when we wanted. Lost my virginity in that treehouse (those are unrelated events … This was not in Alabama)
When parents sold the house the buyers made it a condition if the sale that the tree house be removed before closing. We saved most of the wood, so the old fort will live again in another tree soon.
I didn’t but several friends did. One of em was pretty big! I think was anchores by 4 big trees, one at each corner
We had a tree house growing up, but my dad was a fantastic amateur carpenter. Our huge three story apple tree in the back yard died, so my dad cut it down but left the stump at about 1 story high. Then he built a wood cabin on top of it with a wood ladder to it. The worst part was that I used it pretty much every day but never really appreciated how awesome it was until we moved.
I did! It was nothing more than a platform in a tree but it was also a pirate ship, the surface of the moon, the deck of the titanic, the top of mount everest.
My brothers had a treehouse, but when I got old enough to want to use it, it had already been dismantled. : ( “Girls don’t need treehouses.” Of course they do! The girls’ summer camp I went to had a two-story treehouse!
My friend’s dad built one that was incredible. It was a pretty proper playhouse about 20 feet in the air that had a ladder for us and a pulley system for hoisting up toys and shit. We slept in it at night sometimes. Just out of the blue one day he’s like check out what my dad made and then it was a fuckin cabin in the tree out back.
I had a “tree house”. And I remember the first porno magazine I ever saw. In said treehouse.
I did. My grandmother liked watching home improvement shows on TV, and she would sometimes try to make stuff with inspiration from those shows. One day, she decided that we should have a treehouse. She bought some lumber and plywood and cobbled one together. It was nothing fancy, a very rustic, amateur job, but my friends and I enjoyed it.
I built one in the woods behind my neighborhood using scrounged wood and nails between three trees. It had three levels, the top of which was close to forty feet tall, and it remained standing until I was about 35 years old. You could see it from the street during the winter.
I was very sad when it finally disappeared. I assume someone tore it down, which makes sense. That thing was dangerous as hell the day we finished it. I imagine after a couple of decades it was very dangerous.
Edit: we also dug a four room underground fort. They were small rooms and you couldn’t stand up in any of them, but we did have a fireplace in the main room. We also lit it with torches. Every time we exited the thing our nostrils were black from inhaling all the smoke. I doubt that did my asthma any good, but it sure was fun.
Edit 2: the treehouse also had a fireplace. I liked fire.
We regularly drove past a house with a three story treehouse in the yard. There were ladders connecting each level and I envied the children who lived there.
I built my boys one with extra lumber from a decking project. They also had a zip line. They had a great time with it.
I did! My dad was a carpenter, and when he saw me and my brother trying to make one ourselves with his spare planks of wood, he involved himself and went completely overboard lol. We ended up with a shockingly nice, fully insulated treehouse with glass windows and a shingled roof. It even had a little porch with raw wood accent planks. Its still in my parents yard.