Threatened Hiawatha Golf Club Eligible for Listing in the National Register of Historic Places
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553 | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
Nomination filed with the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office Documents the Threatened Course’s Historical and Cultural Significance
Washington, D.C. (August 15, 2022) – Minneapolis’ threatened Hiawatha Golf Club, a historic eighteen-hole course possessing a strong association with the African American community, is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places according to an 83-page nomination filed with the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) first advocated for this action on March 1, 2022 when the course was designated a Landslide nationally significant cultural landscape that was threatened. The nomination is now under review by the SHPO, which could issue a Technical Opinion Letter regarding the property’s eligibility prior to the nomination going before the State Review Board in early 2023. The Board will make a recommendation to the National Park Service, which makes the final decision about listing Hiawatha in the National Register. According to the SHPO, there are “[m]ore than 1,750 Minnesota listings, encompassing over 6,000 properties from all counties in the state.” The National Register nomination was commissioned by the Minneapolis-based Bronze Foundation, paid for by a private donor, and prepared by the Minneapolis-based historical consulting firm Hess Roise. The course is the subject of a proposed redesign – detailed in a 2021 Master Plan and currently under consideration by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) – that would reduce it from its historic eighteen-hole configuration to nine holes.
“The National Register nomination, which we first called for on March 1, 2022, includes important information about Hiawatha’s historical and cultural significance that we believe is essential to any decision-making process about the course’s future,” said TCLF President & CEO, Charles A. Birnbaum. “This nomination informs the conversation about Hiawatha’s future by providing a deeper understanding of its unique cultural value while also placing it within a greater national historical context.”
Sites listed in the National Register are evaluated and categorized according to four criteria. The Hiawatha Golf Club was found to be significant within Criteria A, which states that the “Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.” Of note, the nomination concludes: “Hiawatha Golf Course and Clubhouse displays good overall integrity, particularly of location, setting, feeling, design, and association.” The period of significance spans 1934, when the course first opened, to 1972. The nomination’s “Statement of Significance” (pp. 22-51) provides extensive details about the site’s history, its importance to the African American community, and segregation at Minneapolis’ municipal golf courses.
In 2012 TCLF advocated for Peavey Plaza, which was then threatened with a radical redesign, to be listed. Peavey Plaza’s National Register designation helped upend the site’s planned demolition by providing a deeper understanding of its design significance, which informed the present very popular and widely hailed rehabilitation. In the 2022 Hiawatha Landslide designation, TCLF called for the MPRB to undertake a nomination of the course. In the absence of action by the Board, the nomination was commissioned by the Bronze Foundation and prepared by Hess Roise, which also authored the successful Peavey Plaza nomination.
The 2021 Master Plan for Hiawatha asserts that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to both save the eighteen-hole historic property and address the periodic flooding of the course (and some adjacent homes) and pollution flowing into Lake Hiawatha. The plan envisions a new nine-hole course, a large space for water storage, and amenities including fat biking trails, a dog patio, and others, to replace the existing course. The Master Plan has repeatedly failed to pass the MPRB since 2021, yet efforts are proceeding for the Board to again vote on the same plan.
National Register designation could substantially affect the redesign process at the Hiawatha Golf Club just as it did at Peavey Plaza.
On August 17, 2022, the five-member MPRB planning committee will hold a public hearing about the Master Plan after which it is expected they will vote on the Master Plan. Assuming approval, on September 7, 2022, the Master Plan could come to a vote before the full nine-member MPRB.
About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 with a mission of “connecting people to places.” TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes. TCLF is also home to the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
NOTE: Twenty-eight images accompany the National Register nomination – click here for a Dropbox file with the photos.
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