It looks just like a giant beehive.
The 10-foot-tall stone structure in St. Louis Park’s Lilac Park, near the Nordic Ware tower, sometimes puzzles drivers going by on Hwy. 100.
Mary Johnson drives by it frequently, and it makes her “so curious,” she said. “I am wondering if it is an old kiln.”
She asked Curious Minnesota, the Strib’s audience-powered reporting project: “What is this ‘beehive’ structure?”
The short answer: It’s not a kiln. But Johnson was close. It is an outdoor fireplace that was first built during the Great Depression.
A remnant of the time when this part of Hwy. 100 was a scenic byway called the Belt Line, the quirky structure was once one of four beehive fireplaces in a series of parks along the roadway, according to local historians and preservation advocates.
The beehives had three openings so that several groups could grill at the same time. Families out for a Sunday drive would pull off the highway to cook hot dogs, have a picnic and explore the parks.
Today, there’s just one other beehive left, in Robbinsdale’s Graeser Park.
The beehives were just one feature of a 12.5-mile “showcase” section of the Belt Line called Lilac Way, said Karen Laukkonen, who runs a civic project called Restore Lilac Way.
“It was lined with thousands of lilac bushes,” she said.
