Bridal Veil Gardens

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The name “Bridal Veil Gardens” was among dozens of suggestions collected from community members after the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) acquired the half-acre property at 2905 4th St. SE in 2019. It represents an important and relatively unknown story of the area’s ecology.

A long-buried waterway named Bridal Veil Creek travels underneath the new park. It was covered and filled in as Minneapolis industrialized and the area was developed. Today the underground creek winds through Prospect Park neighborhood and ends at Bridal Veil Falls, which can still be seen along East River Parkway near Franklin Avenue Bridge.

The site hosted a community garden before it was acquired by the MPRB, and the MPRB has since incorporated the garden into its Community Garden program. Located across from the Prospect Park Light Rail Station, the park also includes a transit plaza, picnic pavilion and open green space. A Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) project provides irrigation for the community garden plots and lawn area.

Previously known by a placeholder name “Towerside Site” or “Towerside Innovation District Park,” the new park fills a park gap in the Prospect Park neighborhood and the Towerside Innovation District, a rapidly growing area near the University of Minnesota campus in Southeast Minneapolis. A partnership between the MPRB, MWMO and local developer Jeff Barnhardt created the park following the East of the River Park Master Plan, a long-term plan for all neighborhood parks in Minneapolis east of the Mississippi River approved in 2019.

Several rounds of community engagement starting in 2017 informed the park naming process. The name “Bridal Veil Gardens” was officially nominated by MPRB Commissioners in December 2021. Public hearings were held on the proposed name in May and June 2022, and MPRB Commissioners approved the name at their regular Board meeting on Sept. 7, 2022.