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There is a big groundswell to restore Lilac Way, its thousands of lilacs and the two remaining original parks with beehives.

The National Park Service in Washington D.C. and Mn/DOT can document only two ‘beehive’ barbecues remaining in the United States. One is in St. Louis Park. The other is Graeser Park in Robbinsdale.

See cool old photos and learn the history of these two remaining Lilac Way ‘beehives’ and parks.


And here is what the cities are doing now:

St. Louis Park

The City of St. Louis Park and its Recreation Superintendent Rick Birno, launched the St. Louis Park Historical Wayside Park/Beehive Restoration Project to restore their last remaining 1939 Lilac Way ‘beehive’ barbecue and an original Lilac Way park. Read all about it.

Robbinsdale

Graeser Park, the only other original Lilac Way park, is located in Robbinsdale at the west intersection of County Road 81 and Highway 100. Robbinsdale has recently started to explore the idea of restoring Graeser Park. Get the latest Graeser Park news.

Golden Valley

The city of Golden Valley helped to restore lilacs with their ‘Lilac Planting Event’ on Oct. 4, 2008. Now, can we get them to restore Blazer Park?

 
Lilac History:
  1. Hybrid lilacs are often called French Lilacs because In 1876, Victor Lemoine created the double hybrid lilac in France

  2. Starting in 1870, Lemoine and his descendants introduced over 200 new lilac cultivars