Board approves lease agreement for incoming Superintendent Bangoura to live in the “Wirth House”
Posted on 18 January, 2019The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution approving an agreement with incoming Superintendent Alfred Bangoura to lease space at 3954 Bryant Ave S, Minneapolis. The property, located within Lyndale Farmstead Park, is formally known as the Theodore Wirth Home and Administration Building and is often referred to as the Wirth House.
Bangoura’s lease includes exclusive use of second and third floors. He will have “nonexclusive use” of the main floor, which includes the kitchen, living room and dining room. The 13-month lease calls for monthly rent of $1,325, with the Park Board paying all utilities and taxes.
“I am honored and humbled to be able to live with my family in this iconic home,” said Bangoura. “To be surrounded by such history and know the great work that took place in the downstairs administration offices will inspire me every day.”
The terms of the lease permit the Park Board to allow public access to the non-exclusive areas of the Wirth House. Tours of the historic home are provided by the Minneapolis Parks Legacy Society during specified times and days of the week and one Sunday per month. The Society began offering tours in August 2018.
The 108-year-old home sits on the south end of a nearly 17-acre parcel of land across from Lakewood Cemetery. The home overlooks a popular skating rink and neighborhood kids often use the home’s sloping lawn as a sledding hill.
The Wirth house was last renovated in 1988 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.