I spent many a summer day in the 1950s and early 1960s heading west down Glenwood Ave from my home on Queen Ave to go to the beach on Glenwood Lake. When I was little it was with my mom and brothers but as I got older it was with my friends. The lake and surrounding park had actually been renamed for a former park superintendent more than a dozen years before, but no one in my neighborhood ever called it anything but Glenwood Lake and Glenwood Park. Come to find out both the lake and surrounding park have quite the history. What I knew as Glenwood Lake, has also been called a number of other names, as has the park.
In looking at a 1874 map of Minneapolis, it’s labeled as Highland Lake. On a 1892 Minneapolis Land & Investment Co. map, it’s named Mooney Lake. It should be noted on this map there’s an adjacent parcel of land labeled “Brewery Assn.” Then on a 1895 map it’s labeled as Kegan Highland Lake. In a 1914 Minneapolis plat map book, on one page it’s labeled Keegan’s Lake but on another page it’s labeled as Glenwood Lake.
As far back as 1887, there are listings in the city directories for Germania Park and Keegan’s Lake. 1884 saw the start of the Germania Brewing Association, which in 1887 built the five story Germania Brewing Company brewery near Keegan’s Lake. It would close three years later when Germania, along with three others breweries, joined forces to become the Minneapolis Brewing and Malting Company which would eventually become the Grain Belt Brewery. The Germania Brewing Association, sat on a 10-acre site alongside Keegan’s Lake and also had an ice house, dance hall, dining hall, bowling alley, etc. This resort was known as Germania Park and had a reputation for being charming and having first-class hospitality. Eventually, that reputation changed and it was known for violence and attracting a “seedy” element. However, it’s not known if this was during the time the brewery was operating, or after it closed and the resort continued under different management. It was so bad that it prompted the Minneapolis Tribune to ask in 1892 “is the Keagan’s Lake district a no man’s land or an independent principality that cannot be invaded by the police officers of the city of Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota or the United States of America?” This may have been partially due to the fact that even then the park and the lake sat outside the boundaries of the city of Minneapolis.
In 1909 the Minneapolis Park Board purchased Keegan’s Lake and the park land adjacent to it. It was added to the parkland formerly purchased in 1889 that was originally called Saratoga Park and then renamed Glenwood Park in 1890 creating the largest park in Minneapolis. Both the park and the lake would be renamed again in 1938 in honor of Theodore Wirth, who had been the Minneapolis Park Superintendent from 1906-1935.
From 1940 to 1964, Wirth Lake was also home to the Minneapolis Aqua Follies every summer during the Aquatennial Festival. The shows featured synchronized swimming, aquatic aerobics and diving. Although these shows only took place for a short time each summer, the infrastructure inside the lake was always there. It was fenced off with snow fencing, but was easily breached by going in the water and under the fence. It was a great place to look for turtles who liked to sun themselves in there.
While the brewery, resort and Aqua Follies are all long gone from this lake known by many names, it’s still great swimming, fishing and other adventures for current generations of Northsiders.