The Robbinsdale City Band is known as the longest continuing municipal band in the Upper Midwest. Its beginnings trace back to 1906, when the Grenell Minstrels performed a concert to raise money for instruments and uniforms to form a city band.
In 1908, prominent local leaders George O. Grenell and George E. Swift combined forces with their families and others to form the Civic Club Band in Robbinsdale. Though the name has changed over the years, the band has played and marched in community events in places far and wide over the years, but it had never played at historic Graeser Park until 2023, when the community celebrated the completion of MnDOT’s three-year historic preservation project. In 2024, the band concert at Graeser became part of Whiz Bang Days, the start of a new tradition.
The formation of the band way back in 1908 is one of a string of historic events intertwined with the Robbinsdale City Band, the Robbinsdale Lions, the Robbinsdale Historical Society, and Graeser Park.
1908: Robbinsdale Civic Band Club is formed.
1919: Wilford (aka Captain Billy) Fawcett publishes the first issue of his humorous, slightly naughty, “Whiz Bang” magazine out of his offices above Security State Bank in downtown Robbinsdale; it becomes an instant success.
1936: The city’s first “Good Will Days” civic booster event features the Robbinsdale City Band parading in new uniforms made as a WPA sewing project.
1939: Robbinsdale Lions Club is established.
1940-41: The 12-mile section of Highway 100 from Edina to Robbinsdale is completed, dubbed “Lilac Way.”
1941: Robbinsdale Rock Garden Roadside Parking Area (now Graeser Park), built by WPA laborers and skilled masons, becomes the last and largest of seven “Lilac Way” parks.
1948: The annual city celebration is renamed Whiz Bang Days, after “Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang” magazine (which, after becoming highly successful, had moved its operations from Robbinsdale to New York in the ’30s).
1978: Local citizens create and incorporate the nonprofit organization Robbinsdale Historical Society.
2006: Robbinsdale City Band celebrates its 100th birthday.
2008: Robbinsdale Lions begin uncovering Graeser Park’s rock garden after years of overgrowth and neglect.
2021: MnDOT initiates three-year historic preservation project at Graeser Park.
2023: Whiz Bang Days celebrates its 75th anniversary.
2024: Graeser Park is nominated for a place on the National Register of Historic Places.