History.
Soo Line Community Garden is a green space and park, created and sustained by neighbors, in the high-density, racially and economically diverse neighborhood of Whittier in Minneapolis. The Soo Line Garden provides educational opportunities for children, fresh organic food for the neighborhood, and is a pollinator-friendly oasis and place of peace in a chaotic world. And it has been since 1991.
1886 - 1987: industrial beginnings
In 1886, the Sheffield Elevator Company built grain elevators at 2845 Garfield Avenue South in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis. Archer Daniels Midland bought the elevators in 1912 and ceased operations in 1976. The city demolished the elevators in 1987.
Photo: Sheffield Grain Elevator “K,” looking east from the Lyndale Avenue bridge at 29th Street, in the 1960s. Courtesy of Hennepin County Library.
1991: Soo Line opens
From 1987 to 1991, the future Soo Line Community Garden site was a grassy field, strewn with litter, junk, car parts and broken glass—in other words, neglected urban land.
In 1991, led by neighborhood resident Martha Boyd and assisted by the Sustainable Resource Center (SRC), Whittier residents and families built the garden with sweat equity, volunteer effort, and a small bit of grant money for tools and materials. And thus began the Soo Line Community Garden.
Photo: Soo Line Garden sign, circa 1991. Courtesy of Hennepin County Library.
1991 - 2000: growth
In the summer of 1993, SLCG received a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council grant that funded improvements like a rock garden, flower beds, an archway for the entrance, and a storage shed.
Summer 1995: Soo Line received a Multi-Use Green Space grant from the SRC’s Urban Lands Program, funding rainwater collection, a prairie garden, and the Big Woods reforestation project.
Summer 1996: Soo Line grew to over 80 plots and over 100 gardeners.
Summer 1997: A water system is installed with funds from the Wedge Community Co-op’s Green Patch Program.
1999: Soo Line Garden receives the Blooming Boulevards award from the Committee for Urban Environment.
Summer 2000: Midtown Greenway opens
The Midtown Greenway opens, forever changing the garden’s character. After years of being marginal land along an abandoned rail line trench, Soo Line Garden becomes a feature along the trail.
Summer 2005: fight to save the land
Soo Line gardeners and community members mobilize massive support for the garden in a series of public process events, thwarting an effort to develop the site.
2010: Soo Line joins Minneapolis Parks & Recreation
The Soo Line Community Garden is transferred from Hennepin County tax forfeited land to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, securing its status a permanent neighborhood park.
2011 - 2023: more growth
Soo Line grew to 101 plots and over 200 gardeners!
The garden also improved the Moen Memorial site, front flower and herb garden, and added children's plots.
2021 - 2024: Hennepin County bikeway threat
In 2021, gardeners learned of Hennepin County's plan to pave a "bike expressway" through the garden, stretching 12 feet wide (8 feet paved and 4 feet of un-plantable turf grass buffer zones) and over 200 feet in length. The plan involved raising the Greenway by 3 feet, along with removing over 25% of garden plots and all gathering areas where kids play and have outdoor classes. A committee immediately got to work to stop the destruction of this untamed green space in our dense urban neighborhood. Learn more about our successful campaign!
In March 2024, after years of resistance, the local community, including families, teachers, kids and non-profit organizations successfully defeated the County’s plans. But at the end of the struggle, the community was told that the top layer of the soils are too contaminated to garden, and the Park Board temporarily closed the garden.
2024 - present
Despite the home garden being closed (for now), Soo Line gardeners, Whittier Elementary and local community groups have banded together to build new garden sites at Whittier Park and Pillsbury Avenue. We’re just getting started.