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.
Local newspapers proclaimed the glories of the innovative new highway, which included Minnesota’s first cloverleaf interchange.
The section of Highway 100 from Edina to Robbinsdale became known as “Lilac Way” for the thousands of lilacs planted by workers along the roadsides. Seven “Roadside Parking Areas” invited visitors to stop and enjoy the views.
The highway was designed for safety, but the parks were designed for natural beauty that would enhance and blend into the landscape.
Each park’s rustic 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 2002, 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 requested bids for the project and selected contractor Environmental Associates, Inc. (EAI). The first phase of stonework by EAI’s skilled masons included rebuilding ten stone picnic tables using rescued material, and stabilizing and repairing the beloved beehive fireplace.
The MnDOT project was completed in 2023, with a focus on safety and accessibility. A new path to the park from West Broadway and the parking area improved access. An accessible picnic table built near the beehive offers views of the rock garden. The EAI crew stabilized and cleaned the rock garden stones, replicating the original pond edges and the stone mounds. Lastly, overgrowth along the stone stairway was removed and replaced with flowering plants and bushes, watered twice weekly by a team of volunteers.
Dozens of people have volunteered over the past several years to pull weeds in the rock garden and on the overlook platform. Volunteer opportunities will continue into the near future, so the park can be admired and enjoyed by generations to come.