All Life Is Local: Still Life with Robin: Gene Weingarten's "Requiem for a Tree"

by Peggy Robin

Some days I think about writing a column on a subject, and then I read someone else's column on the same subject and think to myself, this person's already said everything I was planning to say, and more. That's how I feel about the loss of the grand willow oak of Dupont Circle that came down in the big storm of September 3-4, 2026. It's been much in the news, and Gene Weingarten made it the subject of his Substack column The Gene Pool yesterday; you can read the whole thing here: https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/requiem-for-a-tree

He tells his own story of when he first saw the tree as a 19-year-old student journalist from NYU, here in DC to cover the large anti-war protests that took place over three days in May, in 1971. He leads up to his first sight of it like this:

Day One had been joyful. The Beach Boys performed.

Day Two was fitful — the camping permits for the park were revoked and people were asked to disperse and go home. Most did. Some — the angriest — did not.

Day Three was filled with fury. That was May 3, when I met the tree.

The remarkable thing about this particular tree is that so many people have strong memories of it or can tell a story that captures something about it or they can express a feeling of kinship for it or appreciate the many summers they sat under its cooling shade in Dupont Circle Park.

Now that it's fallen, people have spontaneously come forward and decorated the tall stump with their thank-you notes and jotted-down reminiscences. People of all ages -- whether long-time locals or tourists from afar, including those who are seeing it for the first time as giant stump -- have been moved to write something and leave it behind as a token of respect or love.

Gene Weingarten's column has some photos of these notes. I hope he won't mind that I've copied a few here (he shouldn't mind, as long as I'm urging you to subscribe to his Substack column!).