It’s a small park with a big history!
The original Robbinsdale Rock Garden Roadside Parking Area was the crowning achievement of the Highway 100 construction project, built during the Great Depression. Of the seven original roadway parks constructed along the highway, it was last to be built, the largest, and the most elaborate. Today it is one of only three Lilac Way parks that remain.
The park was dedicated in December 1941 and later renamed to honor Minnesota highway engineer and Robbinsdale resident Carl F. Graeser.
Graeser laid out plans for the construction of Highway 100, the first section of a “Belt Line” highway intended to circle the Twin Cities. He personally supervised as many as four thousand men employed to build the highway under the New Deal federal relief program.
Stretching from Edina to Robbinsdale, the thoroughfare was known as “Lilac Way” for the thousands of lilac bushes planted by the work crews.
The stone features and placement of trees and bushes reflect the brilliance of noted landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols, one of the pioneers of American landscape design. Trained in highway engineering as well as landscape architecture, he designed many projects throughout the state. He was consultant to the Minnesota Highway Department from 1930 to 1940, when the seven Lilac Way parks were planned and built.
Because of its location along the Jefferson Highway at the intersection of Highway 100, Graeser Park was a popular stopover for motorists from the 1940s on. Locals visited the park for family reunions, friends gatherings, scout meetings, and Sunday afternoon picnics. Eventually, however, it fell into disrepair. In 1996, when the park was used for Highway 100 expansion, the stone picnic tables were removed, although the iconic beehive fireplace and enchanting rock garden remained.
However, the park became forlorn and forgotten until 2008, when volunteers from the Robbinsdale Lions began cleaning up the pathways, benches, and years of overgrowth in the rock garden.
In 2020, their work drew the attention of staff in the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Historic Roadside Properties Program. MnDOT began significant stone repair work at Graeser Park in summer 2021, using National Park Service Historic Preservation Standards. MnDOT contractor Environmental Associates, Inc. has now repaired the beloved beehive and rebuilt ten stone picnic tables using rescued materials. A final phase of the project to be completed in 2023 will focus on safety, with stabilization of stones at the rock garden pond edges, and accessibility, with a new path to the park from West Broadway as well as an accessible picnic table to be built near the beehive.