Cavell Park Play Area Improvements Upgrade, replacement and addition of new amenities to the existing play area.

Milestones (anticipated project schedule by month/season)

Community Engagement for Play Equipment Design – Winter 2026
Anticipated Construction – Summer-Fall 2026

Background

Cavell is a small neighborhood park in the Waite neighborhood of Minneapolis. The park was named for Edith Cavell School that had previously occupied the site. Edith Cavell was an English nurse working in Belgium at the outbreak of World War I. When the German army occupied Belgium, she helped Allied soldiers escape to the Netherlands. She was executed by Germany in 1915 because of these efforts and became a propaganda symbol in England, the United States, and other Allied countries to generate support for the war against Germany.

The Cavell School site was targeted for joint development by the school board and the Park Board in 1948, following a joint resolution of cooperation between the two boards to provide park facilities in underserved sections of the city. However, instead of developing the Cavell site, the two boards opted to work together to build a new school and park, Waite Park, four blocks east.

With the Waite Park development, the Cavell site received no further consideration from the Park Board until the Northeast Lions Club requested the Park Board’s cooperation in developing a “cub” baseball field on the site. The Park Board approved expenditures for the improvement and operation of that field and authorized the superintendent to work with the school board to obtain the school board’s approval.

The Park Board finally acquired the site from the school board in 1968, using funds from the federal government’s Open Space Act and the Minnesota Conservation Department. The site was redeveloped as a park, with ball fields, playground equipment, and a recreation shelter in 1977. New courts and paths were installed at Cavell Park in 1999.

(East of the River Park Master Plan – Cavell Park)

Funding

NPP20