Lyndale Park
Encyclopedia
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. It is adjacent to the Lakewood Cemetery
Lakewood Cemetery
Lakewood Cemetery is a large private, non-sectarian cemetery located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue at the southern end of the Uptown area...
and between Lakes Calhoun
Lake Calhoun
Lake Calhoun is the biggest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and part of the city's Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking trails, it is popular for many outdoor activities...
and Lake Harriet. It is part of an enormous greenspace circling through Minneapolis called the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
, and is one of the seven districts within, called the Chain of Lakes
Chain of Lakes (Minneapolis)
The Chain of Lakes is a district in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is one of seven districts that make up the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, a greenspace circling through the city...
. The other six districts within Grand Rounds are the Downtown Riverfront, Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, Minnehaha
Minnehaha
Minnehaha is a fictional Native American woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha. The name is often incorrectly said to mean "laughing water", though in reality it translates to "waterfall" or...
, Theodore Wirth
Theodore Wirth
Theodore Wirth was instrumental in designing the Minneapolis system of parks. Swiss-born, he was widely regarded as the dean of the local parks movement in America. The various titles he was given included administrator of parks, horticulturalist, and park planner. Before emigrating to America...
, Victory Memorial Parkway
Victory Memorial Parkway
Victory Memorial Parkway is a section of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The parkway runs along the northwestern and northern boundaries of the Camden community...
, and Northeast. Managed by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, the 53 miles (85.3 km) parkway system has numerous parks and parkways, lakes (22 within the city limits), streams and creeks, the Mississippi River, and the 53 feet (16.2 m) high Minnehaha Falls
Minnehaha Falls
Minnehaha Creek is a tributary of the Mississippi River located in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles through several suburbs west of Minneapolis and then through south Minneapolis. Including Lake Minnetonka, the watershed for the...
. The 6400 acres (25.9 km²) park system is designed so that every home in Minneapolis is within six blocks of green space.
Lyndale Park is 61 acres (246,858.5 m²) and contains four gardens; the Peace Garden, the Rose Garden, the Perennial Garden, and the Perennial Trial Garden. Immediately adjacent to the Peace Garden is the Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary.
Arboretum
The park's arboretumArboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
was conceived by Theodore Wirth
Theodore Wirth
Theodore Wirth was instrumental in designing the Minneapolis system of parks. Swiss-born, he was widely regarded as the dean of the local parks movement in America. The various titles he was given included administrator of parks, horticulturalist, and park planner. Before emigrating to America...
in 1907 and by 1915 the bulk of the collection had been planted. Many of the original plantings still survive. Major collections include rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
s and crabapple trees
Malus
Malus , the apples, are a genus of about 30–35 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae. Other studies go as far as 55 species including the domesticated Orchard Apple, or Table apple as it was formerly called...
. Heritage trees, defined as the oldest or largest specimen found within the city limits, include the Cucumber Magnolia, River Birch, Golden Larch, Mugo Pine, White Fir, Austrian Pine, Japanese Yew, and Wafer Ash.
Rose Gardens
This is the second oldest public rose garden in the United States and was designed by the Park Superintendent Theodore Wirth. It is 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) in size and at peak season the garden can contain as many as 60,000 blooms. Construction of the garden occurred during 1907-08. An official AARS (All America Rose Selections) test rose garden was added in 1946. The garden features more than 4000 plants and 250 species. Two fountains border the garden; the bronze-and-marble Heffelfinger Fountain is from the Villa Montalto near Florence, Italy and donated to the Park Board by Frank Heffelfinger in 1944. There is a cherub surfing on a dolphin at the top, surrounded by satyrs. Human faces on the pedestal base show the progress of age.Perennial Garden and Perennial Trial Garden
This garden was built in 1962-63 when the Phelps (turtle) fountain was moved from the downtown Gateway to the east end of this garden. Two long perennial borders edge this garden and six annual beds are featured between these borders. Many wedding ceremonies are performed in this garden area located between the Phelps and Heffelfinger fountains.The Perennial Trial Garden is a recent addition to the Lyndale Park, and features perennials that are tested over several seasons for hardiness, disease resistance and other features. Maintained by the volunteers from the Men’s Garden Club of Minneapolis, this garden is a meandering border that begins near King’s Highway and follows the wood line down towards the Peace Garden. This perennial trial garden is planted in the area once occupied by an elaborate perennial border that was first installed in 1925 and later abandoned in the 1960’s.
Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary
Primarily a sanctuary for migratory songbirds in the spring, the warblers are the primary attraction. The Minnesota Audubon Society offers free tours every Tuesday at 9a during April and May. It is also a quiet and peacful nature walk in the midst of the city. The main entrance to the sanctuary is in the Lyndale Park Gardens parking lot, and trails through that back of the Peace Garden. Named for Thomas Sadler Roberts, M.D., D.Sc. (1858–1946), Founding Member of the Minneapolis Young Naturalists Society, and the American Ornithologists' Union, and member of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.Lyndale Farmstead Park
Another park with a similar name, Lyndale Farmstead Park, is a separate park located between West 38th Street and West 40th Street on Bryant Avenue South. Lyndale Farmstead Park contains a recreation center and the Theodore WirthTheodore Wirth
Theodore Wirth was instrumental in designing the Minneapolis system of parks. Swiss-born, he was widely regarded as the dean of the local parks movement in America. The various titles he was given included administrator of parks, horticulturalist, and park planner. Before emigrating to America...
house, Theodore Wirth House-Administration Building
Theodore Wirth House-Administration Building
The Theodore Wirth House is a house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, that was home to Theodore Wirth, an influential architect of the Minneapolis park system. Wirth was superintendent of the Minneapolis park system from 1906 through 1935, when he retired, and he continued to serve as...
. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.