Lake Harriet and the East Harriet neighborhood of Minneapolis were a part of farm land owned by Colonel William S. King. He donated Lake Harriet and land surrounding it to the Minneapolis Park Board in the 1880's. About 10 years later, he deeded a strip of land bordering his Lyndale Farm to be made into a wide boulevard… now known as King's Highway Parkway. It extends between 36th St and 46th on Dupont Avenue, then turns onto 46th Street to Lake Harriet.
This beautiful parkway borders Lakewood Cemetery and Lyndale Park for about half its length, then wraps around some of the most magnificent home sites on this side of the lake. Homes in this pocket have larger lots and many are in $1.5M-$2M price range. Homes currently for sale in the rest of the East Harriet neighborhood average in the $350-$400,000 price range. Most are two-story homes built in the early 1900's.
When Col. William S. King first offered to sell 250 acres of land around Lake Harriet to the city of Minneapolis in 1872 for $50,000 he was told not to try unload his farm for so large a sum. When Charles M. Loring presented a history of the parks in Minneapolis in 1912 its value had already risen to more than $2,000,000. Today just one of the homes for sale in the East Harriet neighborhood of Minneapolis is being offered for $2,950,000!
Col. King's Lyndale Farm on a hill at Bryant and 39th Street was acquired by the Minneapolis Park Board in 1899 and is one of the most historically-signficant park sites in the city. The home at the top of "King's Hill", now a popular sledding hill, was built in 1899 for Theodore Wirth to entice him to move to Minneapolis and become Superintendent of the Park Board. He designed the Rose Garden in Lyndale Park, the second oldest public rose garden in the United States. Theodore Wirth Park, the largest park in the Minneapolis park system, is named after him.
Find more information on East Harriet and other Minneapolis neighborhoods at my Lifestyle Search… click on area, then neighborhood on the right side of the map. Run your cursor over the bottom of each highlighted area to get neighborhood name and click for more information.
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – Email – Minneapolis Neighborhoods Realtor
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