Lilac Park — A Historic Picnic Destination Near Lilac Way

Where to find Lilac Park

Hwy 7 Service Road
St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Lilac Park offers an ideal setting for a picnic. This 2.7-acre historic park sits near Highway 100’s renowned Lilac Way, a 12.5 mile freeway corridor created during the Great Depression and bordered by more than 8,000 lilac plants.

Among the park’s notable features is one of only two remaining beehive-shaped fireplaces in the entire U.S. The fireplace and the adjacent picnic tables were built from limestone quarried along the Minnesota River. Local stonemasons constructed them in 1939, cutting every stone by hand.

The fireplaces received the nickname “beehives” because their form recalls skeps—straw baskets positioned open-end down that served as bee shelters for more than 2,000 years. In earlier years, families visiting these roadside parks used the fireplaces to roast hot dogs. Though it no longer operates, the beehive fireplace continues to be the park’s centerpiece.

Paved trails and picnic tables are available throughout the park, which is also connected to the regional bike trail line.

Lilac Park is especially beautiful in springtime, when the lilacs bloom.