Estonian Garden

In 1966, the city’s Estonian community unveiled a symbolic flame to Estonia–then a state within the USSR.

Designed by Oberlin graduate and prominent architect Herk Visnapuu, the Estonian Garden features an abstract sculpture, an inscribed flame, at its center. Sculptor Clarence E. VanDuzer designed the inscribe flame that represented freedom from bondage, and hope for a brighter future. This was an especially poignant message in 1966 when Estonia was still part of the Soviet Union.

The Inventory of American Sculpture describes the inscribed flame as being “a tapered cement shaft with curved tips. The top of the shaft is cut out in the shape of a petal or a leaf. The cut-out area holds flame-shaped pieces made of wood. The sculpture rests on a raised mound surrounded by trees.”

The inscription on the monument is from Kalevipoeg, an epic poem written by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in the 1850s but originally published in 1861. Part of the broader awakening of nationalist sentiment in Europe, Kalevipoeg became a lightning rod for the creation of Estonian national identity, of self-confidence and pride. It reads: But the time will come when all torches will burst into flame at both ends.

An English translation of the entire passage that the text is a part of is as follows: “But one day a vast fire will break out on both sides of the rock and melt it, when the Kalevide will withdraw his hand, and return to earth to inaugurate a new day of prosperity for the Estonians.” The flame, then, will melt the pillar and free Kalevide – an Estonian folk hero – who will return to “…inaugurate a new day of prosperity for Estonians.”