Sassafras Logo

Early in the development of Exchange Place as a historic site, volunteers chose the sassafras leaf as the co-logo of the organization (the other logo being an image of the Main House).  The unique native tree, which has three distinctive shapes of leaves, is a host for the beautiful Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly and provides food for many birds.  Appalachians commonly used the roots and bark to brew a spring tonic that was supposed to fortify the blood after a winter diet of salted and dried foods.

The sassafras leaf motif can also be seen in a Preston family heirloom—a tin cookie cutter that has been identified as a three-pronged sassafras leaf (but was likely intended to be a tulip by the tinsmith who made it).  This cutter—and another one shaped like a horse—are displayed in the Burow Museum.  Members of the Eden’s Ridge Hearth Cookery society frequently use replicas of these artifacts in hearth cooking demonstrations.