A “beloved” and “iconic” symbol for Beach residents — a giant weeping willow that stood for 97 years at Ashbridge’s Estate — fell during Thursday’s gusty rainstorm.

A photograph of the majestic tree, which towered between the Jesse Ashbridge house at 1444 Queen St. E. and the Duke of Connaught Jr. and Sr. Public School, showing it draping over the lawn near the school, was shared to the neighbourhood Facebook group.

‘It’s a very sad day,” neighbour Diane Walton told the Star. “We loved that tree.”

First planted in 1919, as recorded in a diary entry retrieved by the city from the Ashbridge family, the tree was a joy to those who grew up next to it.

“When my daughter was younger, she used to look out the school window and see the tree,” resident Robert Miller said. “She called it the mountain tree.”

Miller, an active member of the Ashbridge’s Bay community, said people were always swept away by the size and the beauty of the willow when he led Jane’s Walks around the area.

“I’ve been living here since the 1980s; this neighbourhood is my backyard,” he said. “[The tree] has always been a symbol of the neighbourhood.”

Despite the loss, there is a silver lining, Miller said. A “baby” willow growing directly in front of the fallen one is beginning to take the height and size of its parent tree.

“It’s coming back — it’s more like a teen,” he said, marvelling at the size of the new tree.

The Ashbridge’s Estate has been preserved by Ontario Heritage Trust since the family donated it back in 1972. The willow, slated several times for removal by the city, has been preserved by arborists with Urban Forest Innovations.

“It’s a huge tree… it must have been weak inside,” Walton said. “It must have been the wind.”

In 2011, the Star spoke to Matt Pickett, the step-grandson of Dorothy Shaver Ashbridge Bullen — the last family member to live in the home, across from the Connaught streetcar yard. He remained there until 1992.

“It was almost like a little oasis in the middle of the city,” he said. “There was just a calmness in that place when you’d walk in.”

Miller is “hopeful” that the new tree will cement the legacy of the weeping willow that has given so many great memories to the community.

“The young tree will carry on the legacy of its parent,” he said.

With files from Star staff

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