Look what Mn/DOT’s been saving in their ‘Beehive Graveyard.’

Before $100 million worth of Highway 100 road improvements in 2001, Mn/DOT crews dismantled 3 parks and retained the materials. Mn/DOT’s Mary Wenner showed us the materials that were salvaged from the parks that once lined Lilac Way.

Rick Birno and the St. Louis Park Historical Wayside Park/Beehive Restoration Project committee hope to use a small portion of these materials when they restore Roadside Park, which includes moving the beehive from Lilac Park at Minnetonka Blvd., to Roadside Park at Highways 7 and 100.

Historical materials from Graeser Park in Robbinsdale must be saved for Graeser, in the hope it will someday be restored.

Limestone picnic table tops, formerly in the one of the 7 Highway 100 parks. Removed for Highway 100 reconstruction.

More limestone picnic table tops.

Limestone picnic table bases. These were handmade by unemployed stonemasons in the late 1930s, out of limestone quarried from the Minnesota River by the Mendota Bridge.

A rare and unique octagonal limestone tabletop.

Sadly, this pile of rubble used to be a beehive. It has collapsed over time, since it was removed from a Lilac Way park in 2001.

In 2001, Jackie Sluss of Mn/DOT said “Saving the remaining stone fixtures and replanting the (200 lilac) shrubs may seem unusual for Mn/DOT, but it’s part of a project to mitigate the loss of this important cultural resource under the National Historic Preservation Act.”

Park benches and picnic table bases.

Park benches, waiting for restoration.