Lake Harriet Bandshell and Pavilion Renovations Complete renovations to the bandshell and pavilion buildings that include building roof and envelope replacement and make other required accessibility and mechanical improvements.

Proposed Project Schedule

• Building Investigation and Analysis: Winter 2021-Spring 2022
• Design and Construction Documents: Summer 2022
• Project Bidding: Fall 2022
• Repairs: 2023-2025

Complete renovations will take several years to complete, but bandshell entertainment, events, concessions and bathrooms are expected to continue as normal during the summer.

Lake Harriet became a popular boating and picnicking spot almost immediately after becoming a park in 1880s, aided by the Minneapolis Street Railway Company. The company’s track extended to Lake Harriet and to increase ridership it built an entertainment pavilion in 1888 on private land adjacent to park property west of the lake where the company offered concerts.

When the street railway’s private pavilion burned down in 1891, the park board and the company agreed to build a new pavilion on the shore of the lake on park property. The railway company would pay for the pavilion, and provide entertainment, in exchange for a portion of the park board’s boat rental income. The new pagoda-style pavilion, designed by Minneapolis architect and park commissioner Harry Jones, opened in 1892.

Unfortunately in 1903 the pavilion burned down. By this time, with more residential development near the lake, the street railway company didn’t need the inducement of concerts to get people to ride the streetcars and the company contributed the $15,000 it received in an insurance settlement on the old pavilion to the park board to build its own pavilion. With another $15,000 loaned to the park board by an association of Minneapolis retailers, the park board built a new pavilion, also designed by Harry Jones, in 1904. The new pavilion extended out over the water and its roof provided an open-air concert venue.

A severe storm leveled the third pavilion in 1925. The next year a temporary bandstand was built to the east of the old pavilion, at a cost of $4,000, so the park board could continue to provide concerts at the lake. That temporary facility lasted nearly 60 years, until it was replaced with the current bandshell in 1986.

Designed by Milo Thompson, the 1986 bandshell was the first oriented to provide the audience views of the lake while it listened. Costs had risen dramatically in the intervening years. The price tag for the new bandshell, a vast improvement over the one that had lasted so long, was $5.5 million, or about $14 million in today’s dollars. The bandshell, originally blue, was repaired and painted brown in 2004 thanks to donated funds and labor from community members.