Bethune Park Phase 1 Improvements Park improvements guided by the North Service Area and Bethune Park Master Plan

Milestones

Pre-Design: Summer 2022
Design: Fall-Winter 2022
Bidding: Winter-Spring 2023
Construction: Completed 2025
Grand Opening Ceremony: Spring 2026

Funding & History

This project is funded by the 20-Year Neighborhood Park Plan (NPP20) for a total of $823,000.

Bethune Park is located north of Highway 55 between Emerson and Humboldt Avenues. It shares a large block with Bethune School and the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, which is run by a nonprofit organization. The first mention of the park site is found in the 1962 annual report of the park board, which noted that funding was earmarked for a park if the Minneapolis housing authority had land available for park development at the site. Additional capital improvement funds was targeted for development of the site as a park in 1967 and 1968.

In 1965, the site for the park and a new elementary school was selected and preliminary plans for the site were developed in conjunction with the housing authority as part of a major urban renewal project in the area. The next year, the park board received approval from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for a grant for federal funds to help develop the site as a park-school-social agency complex. As part of planning for the joint use of the property by the park and school boards and a social service agency, the park board contracted with Phyllis Wheatley Neighborhood Services to operate programs at the planned facility. The local-Federal deal was finalized in 1968 and a joint-use agreement was signed with the school board for the recreation center attached to the school. The intent of the park board and the housing authority at the time was to trade land, with the park board acquiring land for Bethune Park and the housing authority getting the land that was then Sumner Field Park for housing development. The second step of that agreement was never completed, however, and the park board retained Sumner Park, too. Development of the park began in 1969.

The park, originally referred to as Grant Park after Grant School nearby, was officially renamed in 1972 to honor Mary McLeod Bethune, a teacher and civil rights activist. The name of the elementary school next to the park had already been changed from Grant to Bethune. Bethune was the founder and long-time president of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was a special advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on minority affairs in the 1930s and vice president of the NAACP in 1940.

In 1989 the park board renovated the community center and the park, including a new tot lot for small children, which was dedicated in 1990. The playground and wading pool were replaced in 2015 and 2016.

Late in 2019, the MPRB Board of Commissioners approved the North Service Area Master Plan which includes the master plan for Bethune Park. Upcoming improvements will be guided by this document which can be found under Key Documents.