The Hiawatha Golf Course in Minneapolis could soon be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Minnesota State Historic Preservation Review Board approved a nomination Tuesday night to list the 89-year-old, 18-hole municipal course on the registry. The Keeper of the National Register in Washington is expected to make a decision within 45 days of receipt.
It is unclear, though, what impact the designation would have on a controversial reconstruction plan for the course.
Historians say Hiawatha played a key role in the history of Black golfers in the Twin Cities. But it faces a major reconstruction as the Minneapolis Park Board looks to address environmental problems. There would be only enough room for a nine-hole course.
"We're pleased that the threatened Hiawatha Golf Course is one step closer to being listing in the National Register of Historic Places, an action we first called for on March 1, 2022," said Charles Birnbaum, president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation. "This nomination includes important information about Hiawatha's historical and cultural significance that we believe is essential to any decision-making process about the course's future."
Natural wetlands were dredged to create Lake Hiawatha and its namesake golf course in the early 1930s, providing for the development of the surrounding south Minneapolis neighborhood. The sinking golf course sits 4 feet below lake level in the Minnehaha Creek floodplain and requires constant groundwater pumping.
The Park Board passed a $43 million plan last fall to reconstruct Hiawatha as a nine-hole course on the upper elevations of the property while channeling storm water to flow more naturally throughout. The plan has been lauded by environmental advocates, but opposed by golfers demanding the course remain 18 holes.
The Bronze Foundation, a golf advocacy organization created by golfer Darwin Dean, proposed draining Lake Hiawatha rather than reducing the number of holes on the golf course. That idea did not gain traction.
Afterward, the Bronze Foundation commissioned the historical consulting firm Hess, Roise and Co. to apply for the Hiawatha Golf Course to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The nomination says Hiawatha played a significant role in Black history from 1934 to 1972, noting:
- It was one of four courses where the Twin City Golf Club, a Black organization, played in the 1930s.
- It was among the first five Park Board courses that required private golf clubs to admit Black golfers in 1952.
- The annual Upper Midwest Bronze Golf Tournament, originally an all-Black match, takes place at Hiawatha.
The Bronze Foundation's Dean urged the board to approve the nomination in order to "protect and preserve it" from the Park Board's "proposal that threatens to continue dismantling the Southside community by flooding its landscape of recreation and site of historic civil rights success."
The Park Board neither supported or opposed the nomination, opting to lay out the history of the golf course's ecological problems and how reconstruction aims to address them.
"The MPRB's mission directs attention to ecology and the need to actively address climate change," Park Board President Meg Forney wrote. "Having the golf course recognized as a National Register property but not being able to manage groundwater puts the golf course and its rich history at greater risk."
Listing the Hiawatha Golf Course in the National Register of Historic Places does not mean that the Park Board will be barred from implementing its nine-hole plan, but it would have to consult with the state regarding the work they have planned, said Ginny Way, National Register Architectural Historian in the State Historic Preservation Office.
"Ultimately, listing and consultation with our office does not have to result in the stopping of a project. It is consultation and mitigation," she said. "Listing does not prevent demolition, but it does require an extra regulatory step in order to proceed with the project."
