Collection on Theodore Wirth

Theodore Wirth served as the Superintendent of the Minneapolis Park System from 1906 to 1935, during which time the city’s parks expanded from 1,780 acres to 5,241 and doubled in length from 31.1 miles to 62.23 miles. He was a strong advocate of outdoor recreation and safe park access for all, gaining him admittance to the National Recreation and Park Association Hall of Fame.

Theodore Wirth was born on November 30, 1863, in Winterthur, Switzerland and emigrated alone to the United States in 1888. Wirth studied and worked in horticulture in Zurich, London, and Paris, and studied engineering. Initially a gardener for private estates, including the famous Jardin des Plantes in Paris, Theodore Wirth quickly became Construction Foreman for the New York Park Department, trimming trees in Central Park. An encounter with a police officer while Wirth was walking home, which culminated in Wirth being forced to retrace his steps to utilize the paths instead, solidified Wirth’s rage against “Keep off the Grass” signs and his vow to do away with similar unwelcoming obstacles to the general public. After some “political upheaval,” in his words, his position was eliminated (along with many others) and he became a freelance landscaper. He was appointed superintendent of Parks in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1896, where he designed the nation’s first municipal public rose garden in 1905. Wirth’s second rose garden would be built near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis in 1907. He came to Minneapolis in 1905 to accept the position of superintendent, following the retirement of William Morse Berry. Initially reluctant, Wirth accepted the position with the condition that a home be built for him, and that he be given a chauffeur, since Wirth never learned to drive.

Wirth strongly supported Charles Loring’s Street Tree Program, begun in 1888, and implemented the “Grand Rounds Boulevard System” based upon H.W.S. Cleveland’s design of a continuous boulevard system encircling the city. Wirth changed the flavor of city parks from that of “passive recreation” (walking and driving), to active recreation (bicycling, kite flying, ball playing, sliding on winter hills, and walking on the grass). Despite objections from traditionalists and some influential families, attendance at these newly-inviting city parks soared, making the Minneapolis Park System “the envy of the rest of the country.” Wirth also led the first hike of the Minneapolis Municipal Hiking Club (Minnehikers) in 1919. Hailed as a visionary and a risk-taking idealist, Wirth was survived by his wife and sons—two of whom, Conrad (“Connie”) and Walter L., along with a grandson, Theodore J. (“Ted”), also became architects, bequeathing three generations of landscape architects and the Wirth Environmental Award. Theodore Wirth died on January 29, 1949.