Roosevelt Square

The Rooseveltplatz is named after Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1948 admired the mighty 200 year-old trees on this location during a visit to Sihlwald.

Roosevelt square is one of the spots in the Sihlwald where there are a particularly large number of impressively tall trees. The beech trees growing here are what are known as ‘giant trees’ and are several hundred years old.

Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was also impressed by this place. In 1948, she was in London for the unveiling of a statue of her late husband. There, a close family friend, a forestry engineer, told her about the impressive trees in the Sihlwald. Without further ado, she decided to make a detour to Zurich during her trip.

On 16 April 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt went for a walk through the Sihlwald accompanied by Zurich’s city forester Paul Gugelmann, his son Urs and her secretary. In her subsequent daily column of 27 April 1948, she praised the beech forests and the ‘green carpet’ of wild garlic, the scent of which reminded her of chives.

To this day, the place name Rooseveltplatz commemorates this special visit almost 80 years ago.