Glenwood Park Facts
- Razed in 1959
- Located at NW corner of Highway 100 and Glenwood Avenue in Golden Valley, MN
- Had a few picnic tables and a rectangular fireplace with two grilling areas
- Few photos exist
Historical info
- One of seven original Lilac Way parks
- Designed by Arthur Nichols, Landscape Architect
- Built by Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of one of Minnesota’s largest federal relief projects, 1934-1941
- Hand-built by unemployed men during Great Depression
- Significant in the state’s history of transportation
- Determined ineligible for National Register status
What did the WPA build in Glenwood Avenue Park in 1939?
Stone picnic tables
- Unknown quantity of sets of stone picnic tables
- Photos show at least three picnic tables
- Each set sits on a rectangle of flagstone
- Tables and benches were built of tan, roughly cut limestone, most of which was coursed
- Stones were carefully chosen and cut, some were pure triangles
- There may have been two picnic table styles
- Square tabletop supported by cruciform shape
- Had four benches
- The seat of each was supported by two stone block pedestals
- Rectangular tabletop, with two stone benches that were each supported by three stone blocks
- Tabletops and seats were simple slabs with rock faced edges
- Square tabletop supported by cruciform shape
Low, horizontal fireplace
- Built of tan, coursed ashlar, rock faced limestone
- Unique design, does not match other Lilac Way fireplaces
- Dark red mortar joints contrast with the light-colored stone
- Unknown size, rests on circular flagstone pad
- Two fire openings
- Razed in 1959 for road construction
According to the Golden Valley MN Class of 1966, “By 1940 (Golden Valley had) over 2,000 residents, three times the population of 700 in 1910. Meadowbrook built a new schoolhouse in 1922; a four-room palace at the time, we knew it as the Annex.”
This school was located just west of Glenwood Avenue Roadside Parking Area.
Sadly, this park was razed in 1959, so it was not included in MnDOT’s 1964 Wayside Rest Area Inventory or their 1997 Historic Roadside Development Structures Inventory.