Frogtown Park and Farm – 2023 – Ink – 18×24

Frogtown Park and Farm opened in the fall of 2015, founded by a community-led initiative to secure 13 acres for recreation and as an urban demonstration farm.

This map illustrates the many uses of the land. The area was wet land when the House of the Good Shepherd built its convent on the high point above a lake in 1883. Over the decades the wet lands were drained and mining companies extracted sand and gravel from either side of the convent, which resulted in the steep slopes that we see encircling the park today. By the 1960s, the gravel mines ceased operations and a neighborhood formed around the convent. In 1969, the convent moved and sold the property to the Wilder Foundation, which kept its headquarters there until 2008. When the Wilder Foundation moved to its new headquarters at University Ave and Lexington Ave, the community rallied to take advantage of the rare opportunity of 12.5 acres of under developed land. They worked with the City of Saint Paul who purchased the land and converted it into Frogtown Park and Farm.