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We are saddened for what has been lost but appreciate what has survived.

And hope to restore what we can.

There used to be thousands of lilacs and five ‘roadside parks’ along Highway 100. Here are photos of three of those parks.

From the St. Louis Park Historical Society web site:

“All but gone now, the roadside parks of Highway 100 were nothing less than a phenomenon—so much so that families came out to the highway just for the ride and the opportunity to picnic among the lilacs. The furniture was stone, and the three-family barbecue grills took the name ‘beehives.’”

Now, there are only three parks left along Lilac Way: Graeser Park in Robbinsdale and the St. Louis Park Roadside Park, located by the Nordic Ware tower. Lilac Park, just north of Minnetonka Blvd., is scheduled for demolition when Highway 100 is widened, possibly in 2014.

The beehive at Lilac Park was moved in Oct. 2008. The St. Louis Park Historical Society is currently working with officials from the City, Mn/Dot, State Preservation, and the bike trails commission to preserve and relocate this historic artifact.

Please also support the efforts of the St. Louis Park Historical Society to raise funds to restore the beehive and Roadside Park.

1940: Lilac Park, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka Blvd. and Highway 100
 

2007: Lilac Park, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka Blvd. and Highway 100.


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

2007: One of the four remaining stone picnic tables in Roadside Park near the Nordic Ware tower in St. Louis Park. When restored, Southwest trail users will have access to this park.

This 1939 “beehive” barbecue has now been moved out of Lilac Park, and out of the path of future highway construction.

There is a grassroots effort to restore its new location at Roadside Park at Hwy. 100 &  7, near the Nordic Ware tower. This park is mostly intact, with original stone picnic tables, rock garden, fireplace and council circle.

This will take money and help from the community.

If you remember the beehives, please help. The SLP Historical Society has set up a fund to restore Roadside Park, the new location for this beehive.

All funds donated to this account are fully tax deductible. Please send your check to the St. Louis Park Historical Society Beehive Fund, 3700 Monterey Ave. So., St. Louis Park, MN 55416. Write “beehive” on your check if you want it earmarked for the beehive fund. Thank you in advance for your generous contribution.

1940s: Enjoying a picnic at one of the Lilac Way roadside parks.

2007: Roadside Park, Highway 7 and Highway 100 (near the Nordic Ware tower, right off the Southwest Transitway bike trail.) New home of the beehive from Lilac Park on Minnetonka Blvd.

Rick Birno and the St. Louis Park Historical Wayside Park/Beehive Restoration Project Committee plans to restore the Roadside Park by Nordic Ware/Highway 7 with the transplanted beehive, restored park structures and - best of all - landscaping based on the original plans from the 1930s! Lilacs purchased through The Campaign to Restore Lilac Way may help to restore landscaping for this park.

2007: Graeser Park, Robbinsdale. This is one of only two remaining beehives along Lilac Way.

We are very pleased to hear that Robbinsdale is considering purchasing Graeser Park. Read the article.

The landscaping and roadside parks along the entire length of the “Lilac Way was designed by A. R. Nichols, the Consulting Landscape Architect for the MN Dept. of Highways, 1930s-early 1940s.

Born in 1881, Nichols was the first landscape architecture graduate from MIT in 1902.

The Highway 100 Belt Line and 3 smaller projects furnished work for 3,500 homeless men, each working six hours a day for six days (once or twice) per month. They earned 55 cents an hour or $19.80 in cash in lieu of the $10.80 they had received in meal and lodging tickets. A picture dated July 9, 1935 shows the men boarding a long line of buses after a day of work. They had previously been transported in open dump trucks.

2007: Graeser Park, Robbinsdale. Stairway and fountain.

1940: Graeser Park,

Robbinsdale.

Stairway and fountain.


Graeser Park was named for MN Dept. of Highways engineer Carl F. Graeser—called the “Father of the Belt Line”—who developed the concept, promoted funding, and supervised the construction. It was also known as Robbinsdale Rock Garden Roadside Parking