Aesculas glabra bark is not a good match Rick ..

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Neither is Aesculas hippocastanum ..

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

The example of Acer griseum which Stefan linked to shows, as he mentioned "top young soft bark, peels horizontally, at the bottom of the old hard peels vertically".

Frillylily ... check out the link Stefan gave, look carefully at the thicker bark on the lower part.

Well at this point I think seeing a leaf later in the summer will nail down something out of the options. Reid, maybe someone could email you a photo of the trees leaves when it sprouts out later since you aren't near it.

in our country, grow horse chestnut everywhere, on the sidewalk breaking beneath my feet, Winter is here and -35 Celsius,
a lot of it resembles a Buckeye, but it may be a maple tree, This kind of I don't know , only in photos.
deduction says Maplewood - so the more likely it is Maple

I refrained from mentioning the bark because I can't say I am familiar with what it looks like for Aesculus. But I stick to my guns about that background branch: if that's part of the tree, it can't be birch or maple. What the tree is, I couldn't really say (which is why I didn't), but with twigs that thick (and likely the buds, too), there aren't a lot of options up here in the north.

Or maybe that branch doesn't belong to the tree in question.

Anderwood said:This is at a house I went to look at. I may not be back there soon.

Thanks everyone!

Where is the house? Is it in Minnesota? Sorry for trying to pull teeth, but you are not giving us much information.

Yes, it is in MN about 45 minutes north of St. Paul. If I end up buying the house I will update the thread with better photos.