There is strength to be found in troubled times; be like an oak - Paso Robles

There is strength to be found in troubled times - Phil Dirkx - SanLuisObispo.com

I measured it because I have a picture that was taken in 1956 of that very tree. Its trunk didn’t look much thicker than a mop handle.

That picture appears on a program for the dedication of Paso Robles’ “new” City Hall on March 24, 1956. It shows the single-story, stucco and brick City Hall and its front entryway, with the then-slender tree in a planter.

But today, that tree is indeed huge. It shades the spacious patio and seems at least as tall as the two-story city building. The patio’s park benches are under the tree’s canopy. All visitors can take shelter there from Paso’s baking summer sun.

That “new” 1956 city hall lasted almost 40 years. It was torn down and replaced in 1995 by the present Library/City Hall. But the tree remained.