The city of Robbinsdale is considering buying an old rest stop at West Broadway Avenue and Highway 100 that dates back to the late 1930s.

City staff asked the City Council at a meeting July 1 whether to try to buy Graeser Park, or continue working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to maintain the property.

The park was one of several originally developed in the late 1930s to early 1940s as a rest stop along the old Lilac Parkway belt line highway, which is now Highway 100.

Graeser Park was also known as Robbinsdale Rock Garden Roadside Parking.

About 15 years ago, Robbinsdale agreed to maintain the park more regularly than the state, which recently indicated it is only interested in the land for easement purposes and does not own the land, City Manager Marcia Glick said.

During the most recent construction of Highway 100, the park's approximately one dozen old limestone tables were taken apart, removed and stored in the Golden Valley MnDOT facility.

MnDOT has agreed to let the city of Robbinsdale move the tables to the city's public works garage until Robbinsdale can find someone to put together and install the furniture.

Now the city is wondering if it should also go ahead and buy the park. Before it could do so, officials would first need to determine who owns the land, get it appraised and properly platted.

"For all we know, we could be the ones that own it," Glick said in a separate interview, saying the records to the land are so old it is unclear to whom the park belongs.

City staff wants to move quickly on the matter because of future staff changes at MnDOT, meaning previous and current conversations between the two parties could be lost, Glick said.

But Councilmember Bill Blonigan was not entirely convinced the city should take up the issue.

"I just don't think anyone's going to use that park, no matter what we do with it," he said, saying earlier that "less than five percent" of Robbinsdale residents have walked in the park.

Councilmember George Selman disagreed, saying Graeser Park and several like it along Highway 100 are of historical and personal significance.

As a schoolchild in St. Louis Park, Selman said his class often had an annual lunch at a beehive park near the school.

According to the St. Louis Park Historical Society, the Graeser Park area was the most popular stop along Lilac Way.

Other beehive parks were located in St. Louis Park and Golden Valley.

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Councilmember George Selman disagreed, saying Graeser Park and several like it along Highway 100 are of historical and personal significance.

As a schoolchild in St. Louis Park, Selman said his class often had an annual lunch at a beehive park near the school.

According to the St. Louis Park Historical Society, the Graeser Park area was the most popular stop along Lilac Way.

Other beehive parks were located in St. Louis Park and Golden Valley.

Comment on this story at our website, www.mnsun.com.