Stuffed Animal Tree of Bergen Beach

Bergen Beach is a little more suburban than most folks would expect of Brooklyn, but it still hosts its share of quirky characters, best exemplified by the plushie-festooned tree in front of a house on East 70th Street.

The tree belongs to one Eugene Fellner, a retired hospital administrative employee. He started the collection after finding a stuffed tiger in sunglasses sitting in a pile of trash nearby. After a while, the collection started to grow, especially as people began bringing him donations—leaving them in the yard to be added to the tree. 

Fellner had a lumberjack friend who put the stuffed animals on the higher branches for him, but now Fellner does it himself using a ladder from a truck. He says there are over 1,100 stuffed animals attached to the trunk and branches and made a sign proclaiming it the “World’s Most Famous Tree.” Of course, not everyone is a fan: his neighbor put up a giant white fence to avoid looking at the pile of stuffed animals.