Beehive Fireplace on Highway 100
I just received a note from Andrea Weber, former MPRB Landscape Architect, who now works for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. She referred to a post from 2011 about the landscape architect Arthur Nichols and the beehive fireplaces he incorporated into his designs for picnic areas along Highway 100. I thought you might be interested.
Andrea wrote: I am writing this in 2023-the original posts are from 2012-so history lives on. I am the Historic Roadside Property Manager for MnDOT and a former MPRB Landscape Architect. I have been working on Graeser Park on TH 100-the site of the only existing beehive in its original location- since 2020. We completed a rehab of the beehive and picnic area last year and are doing one more phase of work this spring. The beehive “Triple Fireplace Type No 6” was designed by Carl Graeser. I have scans of the signed drawings at MnDOT! If you’re still out there, Richard, I would love to chat, as I work on an lot of sites designed by your grandfather.
David Carpentier Smith
Minneapolis Park History 
I have a similar memory to Roger Anderson of family picnics along Hwy. 100 in the 1950s. We drove there from south Minneapolis in our Buick convertible. I remember the beehive, but don’t remember if we had fires in the fireplace.
Thanks Andrea, Roger and Tom for your contributions. I wonder if kids growing up today will have the same fond memories of family cars? I think our relationship with cars is much different now than when we were young.
Yes they were great. I remember my mom and dad taking my sister and I to these areas for a picnic in the 1940’s in our 1937 ford..