Zipping toward our grandparent’s house along Highway 100, my sister and I knew we were close when we saw the beehive fireplace in the old Lilac Park! We must have driven by it hundreds of times in the 70’s and 80’s, exiting at Minnetonka Boulevard en route to Dakota Avenue.
Submitted 4.17.2022
“My grandfather Julius Atsch was an immigrant from Hungary and a stone mason and bricklayer. He played a big part in the construction of the beehive fireplaces. We often had picnics at Graeser Park in Robbinsdale. Fond memory! (more…)
I recall throwing coins in Graeser Park’s fountain as a little child on a picnic with my mom and cousins. I think the first time was with my mom and dad in the early to mid-1960s. We grilled burgers in the beehive grill. I have memories of grilled burgers with ketchup and mustard and Old Dutch Bar-B-Q chips!
Submitted 3.31.2021
“My family moved from California to Plymouth in 1974 when I was nine. The beehive fireplace in Lilac Park near Minnetonka Boulevard in St. Louis Park was one of the first memories I have of Minnesota. My dad arrived a few weeks early to get the new house ready. The rest of the family flew to Minneapolis. It was my first time out of California.”
Submitted 1.3.2021
“My mother, Lorraine Skelly (then of North Minneapolis), took this photo in June of 1944. The three ladies in the photo are some of her friends from Minneapolis Moline (Como Avenue plant), where she worked inspecting Navy shells during WWII. Unfortunately, the ladies in the photo are unidentified (and my mother died back in 1990), so I have no information on who they are. (more…)
It is wonderful news that MnDOT will install salvaged stone picnic tables in Graeser Park. I am proud of the cleanup work the Robbinsdale Lions Club has done. All of the benches were pretty overgrown when I cleaned up the park with fellow Lions. I had the thrill of uncovering one of the benches that I sat on as a kid—I just started clipping away at an edge and little by little – voila! There is much more to be done. (more…)
“I flew back to MSP for my Dad’s 80th birthday. My plan for weeks was that once I was in my rental car, I was going to take my husband to Graeser Park to check out your preservation efforts. I was probably 10-12 years old the last time I set foot in the park. I was looking forward to my “homecoming” tour. It was like walking back into my childhood home. (more…)
I attended the old Fern Hill School, corner of Minnetonka Boulevard and Ottawa in the 1950’s. We walked to the original Lilac Park for our fall leaf collecting walk and for the end of school picnic. It felt like a very long way. Love that park and its stone work. I am still friends with many of the people I have known since kindergarten at Fern Hill. After many years of living further out I am back in St Louis Park and it is a terrific community.
“I love the beehive fireplace now located in restored Lilac Park. My mom and dad and my brother and my auntie and I used it for picnics years ago when it was located in the original Lilac Park on Minnetonka Boulevard in the 1950s before it was moved to this park. We grilled hot dogs in the beehive fireplace. (more…)
“Growing up in Crystal, I remember a birthday party in Robbinsdale’s Graeser Park back in the 1960s. All the kids at the party lined up on one of the curved benches and we walked along it.