This secret Central Park tree pays tribute to hundreds of beloved NYC pets

Move over Rockefeller Center with its towering Norwegian spruce.One of the most poignant seasonal displays is a humble 18-foot tree hidden in Central Park.

Every holiday season for nearly the past 40 years, a Hinoki false cypress in the depths of the park comes alive.It’s decorated with hundreds of ornaments memorializing beloved pets with pictures and heartfelt messages.

“I see you through the pines.Roam free and unencumbered,” reads an ornament with a picture of a terrier named Scout.Another bears a photo of a gray lop-eared rabbit named Milo Lee and the message, “We will miss your daily nose rubs, rocking you back and forth like a baby, your happy sounds when you get treats.”It’s a “cathartic place, but it’s also a place of great joy and celebration, too,” said Larry Closs, an Upper West Sider who acts as an “ambassador” for the memorial, which is known as the Furever Tree.Around Thanksgiving each year, Closs, a documentarian, and Marianne Larsen, a “semi-retired” interior decorator who’s “pushing 70,” take hundreds of carefully preserved ornaments out of storage and hang them from the tree, with the help of some “elves.” Some date back to the late 80s.Larsen has been acting as the “tree keeper” for roughly twenty years.

She took the reins from retired tree founders, Jason Reddock and Nicki Gallasa, a pair of pet-loving theater friends.The unwitting duo started the tradition in 1986 when they dressed up the evergreen with red velvet bows and photos of their deceased dogs.“It’s happy and sad — but that’s the point of a memorial, isn’t it?” Larsen said.

When she first started caring for the memorial tree, there were just 50 or 100 ornaments.Now, there are nearly 2,000 as word about it has spread.

But its location remains unknown to most and the tree keeps a low profile.It has only a sporadically updated Facebook page and a simple website, neither of which give its exact location.

Those who know where it is ...