Dinky Park

Size: 1.27 acres

Neighborhood: Marcy Holmes

Service Area: Southeast

Commissioner District: 1

Outdoor Use and Event Space: Learn how to reserve park space for corporate events, community celebrations, and more.

Dog Park: Visit the Off-Leash Recreation Area. Permit required.

Name:

The Board of Commissioners approved renaming Marcy Park to Dinky Park on November 19, 2025.

The park was originally named for Marcy School which once occupied the land. The present Marcy Open School is next to Holmes Park on 4^th Street SE. It was built in 1992 on the site of the old HolmesSchool. MarcySchool was named for William A. Marcy a leader of the national Democratic Party before the Civil War. He was a senator from New York who later became Secretary of War and Secretary of State.

Acquisition and Development

It is appropriate that the neighborhood in southeast Minneapolis is named the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood with a hyphen.  Both names come from elementary schools in the old southeastern section of what used to be St. Anthony, thus the “southeast” designation of the streets in the area.

The first Marcy school was built in 1878 at 9^th Avenue SE and 5^th Street SE, land that is now covered by Interstate Highway 35-E. In 1890 HolmesSchool (named for Oliver Wendell Holmes) was built six blocks to the east of the first MarcySchool.

The first MarcySchool was replaced by a second MarcySchool in 1908 at 11^th Avenue SE and 7^th Street SE two blocks north and east of the original school by that name. That is the location of the present Marcy Park.

What makes the names a bit confusing is that in 1992 a third MarcySchool was built—on the site of the old HolmesSchool, which is next to HolmesPark. So Marcy Park is not next to MarcySchool, HolmesPark is. Marcy Park replaced Marcy School and Marcy School replaced Homes School, but Holmes Park is still Holmes Park, just no longer next to Holmes School.

In 1976 the park board expressed its desire to acquire the Marcy School site for a park once the school closed. In 1979 the park board agreed to pay the school board the “fair market value” of the school site, $150,000. The old school grounds were promptly landscaped and outfitted with playground apparatus for smaller children. (See Holmes Park for more of the story of parks in the neighborhood.).

In 2023 a new full basketball court, dog park and hammocking area were added to the park, along with path and lighting improvements. The project was funded by the 20-Year Neighborhood Park Plan.

Park history compiled and written by David C. Smith.