[Mpls] Wirth Hiouse -Free Public Tours - YOUR INVITATION

[Joan Berthiaume]

Please join Theodore J. Wirth (Grandson) and the Minneapolis Parks Legacy Society for a free public tour 
of the historic Theodore Wirth Home and Administration Building 
Saturday, October 8
Noon to 4 PM (arrive by 3 PM if you want a complete tour)
3954 Bryant Avenue South in Lyndale Farmstead Park

 Theodore Wirth's home, office and drafting room will come alive again from noon to 4 PM, on Saturday, October 8.  You will be greeted by Wirth's grandson and namesake, Theodore J. Wirth and the Minneapolis Parks Legacy Society. 

Located in Lyndale Farmstead Park, at 3954 Bryant Avenue South, the home was built for Wirth by the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners as a result of negotiations that lured Theodore Wirth from his comfortable position as Superintendent of Hartford Connecticut Parks in 1906.  Wirth asked for a home of his own design, to be located in a park, with offices where he could be inspired by watching people, especially children, using the park   

 Just like in "Field of Dreams", if they would build it, he would come. And so Charles Loring agreed. 

Wirth raised his family in the home and dedicated the rest of his life  to the expansion, design and development of the Minneapolis Park System. 

The home includes Wirth's design office and a drafting room.  Within those walls and on those drafting tables Theodore Wirth implemented his DREAM ...    That Minneapolis should be known as a Garden City and become the Number One Rated Park System in the Nation.

 Those rooms will be recreated with period furnishings, maps and drawings - replicating their earlier visual character.

The Society has accomplished recognition for the Theodore Wirth Home and Administration Building to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places and has asked the Minneapolis Park Board for permission to create an interpretive learning center within the building - as a service to the public  - at no cost to the Park Board.