Along the Lilac Way

Episode 47: Take a Sunday drive through the history of Highway 100, originally constructed in the late 1930s as "Lilac Way," Minnesota’s first regional beltway bypass. It details how WPA workers, under the direction of engineer Carl F. Graeser and landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols, built thousands of lilac plantings, custom stone features, and seven distinct roadside parks to serve Depression-era commuters. The hosts discuss how postwar freeway expansion destroyed or neglected much of the original corridor, concluding with the grassroots volunteer movement that successfully restored sites like Graeser Park and earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places.