Minnesota’s Highway 100, built during the Great Depression, was a stunning achievement in early highway design and construction. The new highway, a mile west of the Minneapolis city limits, extended from Edina on the south to Robbinsdale on the north. It was envisioned as the first part of a “belt line” that would encircle the Twin Cities. The highway design featured innovative safety measures—including the first cloverleaf interchange in the upper midwest—and was equally noted for its program of roadside beautification.
When the highway project was first approved, the Minneapolis Journal coined the term “Lilac Way,” proposing that thousands of lilac bushes should be planted along belt line. The newspaper announced that travelers would come from far and wide to see the lilacs in bloom, much like “cherry blossom time” in Washington, DC. About 3,500 lilacs of various colors were planted along the highway in the fall of 1935, with many more added the following spring.
Carl F. Graeser, who engineered the highway, managed crews of formerly unemployed men who were put to work under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of the “New Deal” federal relief program. He personally supervised the entire project, and it is said that he signed payroll for as many as 4,000 men. The construction of Highway 100 was the largest WPA project in Minnesota. Originally known as the Robbinsdale Rock Garden Roadside Parking area, the park was later renamed Graeser Park in honor of the man who became known as the “Father of the Belt Line.”
Robbinsdale’s was the largest, most elaborate, and last to be built of the seven roadside parks constructed by the WPA between 1935 and 1941 along the new highway. The parks wereesigned by noted landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols, who is among the pioneers of American Landscape Architecture. Nichols was trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in both engineering and architecture, and in 1902 he became the first graduate of MIT’s Landscape Architecture program. After moving to Minnesota from the East Coast, he designed several notable parks and gardens in the state, including Glensheen Mansion and the State Capitol approach. Most of Minnesota’s waysides, scenic overlooks, and entrance markers built in the 1930s and 1940s were the work of Arthur Nichols.
In addition to lilacs, Nichols planned for a variety of trees, bushes, vines, and native plants. All seven parks featured hand-cut natural stone elements, such as picnic tables, campfire rings, and terraces. Designed in the National Park Service Rustic Style, they display the finely-crafted, labor-intensive construction methods representative of the Depression era.
Tourists and locals alike enjoyed driving on Lilac Way and visiting the wayside rests, but eventually the parks fell into disuse. Four of the seven were dismantled due to highway expansion; Graeser Park was spared from demolition. Pieces of tables and benches from some of the parks were saved for potential reuse.
ROBBINSDALE’S LILAC WAY PARK
Constructed in 1940-41, the park was first called the “Robbinsdale Rock Garden Parking Area.” It was soon renamed “Graeser Park” to honor the retired highway engineer, who in his later years bought a home in Robbinsdale on Unity Avenue near the park. Graeser was the largest, the most elaborate, and the last of the Lilac Way parks built. It was located along Highway 100 between Highway 52 and the old Jefferson Highway (now West Broadway).
The park’s unique beehive-shaped fireplace was built in 1940 out of tan limestone with a domed top and three brick-lined fire boxes, flanked by benches. Robbinsdale’s beehive, still standing today, is the only one in the entire US still in its original location.
In addition to the beehive and the enchanting rock garden, other structures that have survived include a large, semicircular limestone terrace, a parking area with stone curbing, and a low entry wall with steps down to the picnic area. A stone drinking fountain and stone barrels for burning trash have been lost.
With nineteen stone tables of various sizes, five barbecue grills, and the beehive fireplace, Graeser Park was a favorite spot for family picnics, scout meetings, school outings, and gatherings of friends and relatives. It was also a popular rest stop for travelers along old Jefferson Highway (running right through downtown Robbinsdale on its way from Winnipeg to New Orleans) and the new Highway 100, which eventually extended from Robbinsdale to the Fort Snelling–Shakopee Road.
Some of Graeser Park’s original features have stood the test of time, such as the towering pines planted eighty years ago. But in the years since 1940, the park’s stone structures and limestone paths began to crumble, tables were removed, weeds overtook the rock garden, and the water supply was disconnected. The park was neglected and mostly forgotten until 2008, when volunteers from the Robbinsdale Lions Club started to care for it, picking up trash and pulling weeds to keep the park visible until preservation work could begin.
FAST FORWARD to 2020
The Lions’ stewardship of the rock garden drew the attention of MnDOT’s Historic Roadside Property Program, which leads the management, protection, and preservation of properties with historic features along the state’s transportation corridors. Program manager Andrea Weber, noting that a number of original structures were still intact, initiated a preservation project at Graeser Park in 2020.
The project aims to:
- preserve existing structures with stabilization/repair
- improve safety and accessibility
- restore original picnic tables that were removed during Highway 100 expansion (late 1990s) and West Broadway bridge reconstruction (2004).
The first step was completed in fall of 2020 with the removal of trees that were threatening some of the stone structures.
In July 2021, tabletops and stone pieces salvaged from Graeser and other Lilac Way parks were reused to rebuild three table pads and one picnic table near the rock garden.
The reconstruction work was done by Northern Bedrock Historic Preservation Corps, an AmeriCorps program that employs young adults who are interested in learning the preservation trades. Under the supervision of a local skilled mason, the corps members worked hard, even in rain and oppressive heat. They can be proud of what they accomplished in less than a week.
The project is ongoing through the fall of 2021 and beyond, with work to be done by a masonry contractor hired by MnDOT and approved by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation work. The next phase will involve rebuilding more picnic tables and repairing stonework in the walls and fireplace as time allows. The entire project is designed to meet national standards for historic preservation.
MnDOT’S PLANS FOR 2021 & BEYOND
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- Rebuild at least three or as many as ten tables, using salvaged stone
- Build an accessible table near the beehive
- Repair the beehive
- Reset loose and fallen stones at pond edges
- Stabilize the east embankment
- Resurface a walkway from West Broadway to the park
The MnDOT project will not be a full rehabilitation; the water supply will not be restored at this time. When MnDOT finishes its work, the City of Robbinsdale will be responsible for the park.
MnDOT Project Manager: Andrea Weber andrea.weber@state.mn.us
Visionary thinking. When I was hired in 1969 , by the Minnesota Highway Department, as a surveyor one of the first design books I received was a book on how to layout a beehive fire place. I wish I would had kept the design manual