Five heritage redwoods stand in a 1-acre square in downtown Sunnyvale, California, on the site of Sunnyvale Town Center. They were planted on the old City Hall grounds between 1930 and 1945.
The City Hall went in the 1970s, along with several downtown blocks, when the city cleared the ground for an enclosed shopping mall. Residents petitioned to keep the trees, so the mall was redrawn with an open courtyard around them.
The mall opened in 1979 and closed its interior in 2003. The last of the buildings came down in 2021. The trees stayed…