Riverside Park Staircase
I received a question from Elliot about Riverside Park that I can’t answer. Maybe you can.
“There are two limestone structures to the left and right of the main staircase at Riverside Park. They’re pretty overgrown. They look staircase-like, but I wonder if they were cascades for water to go down? I looked but couldn’t find any old pictures. Do you know about these?”
Any thoughts?
Riverside Park was one of four neighborhood parks designated by the first Board of Park Commissioners when the Board was created by the Minnesota Legislature in 1883. They designated a new neighbornood park in each quadrant of the city. The others were Central (Loring) Park, Logan Park and Farview Park. In addition to the neighborhood parks, the board planned to acquire connecting parkways–thanks to H.W.S. Cleveland’s plans–as well as land around one of the distant lakes to the southwest. Before it was officially named, the Park Board refered to it as Sixth Ward Park.
The neighborhood near Riverside Park was the only one that already had a park at that time although it served mostly as a pasture. Murphy Square, which had been donated to the city as a park nearly 30 years earlier, stood only a half-mile to the west of Riverside Park.
You can read a brief history of Riverside Park at the Park Board’s website. Click on the “History” tab.
David Carpentier Smith
Minneapolis Park History 
Hi David,
Apologies for my delay in replying here – my daughter was visiting for several days last week.
Yes, it’s my understanding that those two stone structures were designed to control water flow at Riverside Park and were built at the same time as the staircase by the WPA. But I’d have to do some digging to find materials to document this.
Mary Lynn Pulscher at MPRB is the person I’d contacted years ago to learn more about the early history of Riverside Park. I’d suggest you reach out to her, if you haven’t already, to learn more.
I’ll also dig through my files from long ago and see what I can find that might share more – and will let you know of anything I find. I leave in a few days to visit my father and won’t return until June 5th, so it may take me until after that to reply.
Take care,
Carolyn Carr
Thanks, Carolyn. Appreciate your work. Mary Lynn is my go-to on many issues! When you have time to provide any more info we’d love to hear.
Wow such a great answer. Thanks a lot.
Elliot
Built in 1939 by the W.P.A. A great picture of the work when new is here:
https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p16022coll55:834#?xywh=3368%2C1675%2C1418%2C1046&cv=16
Thanks! Excellent photo. Those WPA notebooks are fun to read. The WPA did a lot of work in Minneapolis parks.
“Cascades: two stormwater diversion structures were installed in 1936, at the time of construction of West River Parkway. Cisterns were added in 1939 and drains were connected to an outlet in retaining wall wall constructed along the Mississippi River bank (MPRB Archives, 1936) Board of Park Commissioners, 1940.”
The WPA construction report lists these structures as cascades.
This information is from the Riverside Park Natural Area Ecological Inventory and Restoration Management Plan written by Carolyn Carr, M.S. and Cynthia Lane, Ph.D from Ecological Strategies, LLC submitted to Friends of the Mississippi River September 16, 2010
There are some great photographs of the cascades in the report. FMR might have an electronic copy of the report.
Thanks for the excellent information, Scott. And good to hear from you again! Elliot, you were right about “cascades.”
David, They are water cascades of some sort. Carolyn Carr wrote an ecological history about Riverside Park that might have some more detailed information. I should try to dig it out of one of the boxes on my porch. Thanks, Scott Vreeland
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