David C. Smith

Smith is the author of City of Parks: The Story of Minneapolis Parks (2008) and has written historical profiles of more than 180 Minneapolis parks for minneapolisparks.org, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s Website. He also writes a blog on park history at minneapolisparkhistory.com.

Meet the architect of the Twin Cities’ park systems: Horace W. S. Cleveland

By David C. Smith

Feb. 16, 2016

Cleveland was especially influential in preserving the banks of the Mississippi River gorge in St. Paul and Minneapolis as parkland.

Parade Stadium was Minneapolis’ first public football stadium

By David C. Smith

Jan. 14, 2014

The Minneapolis park board built the 16,560-seat stadium at The Parade, a park just west of downtown, in 1951.

Charles M. Loring: ‘The Father of Minneapolis Parks’

By David C. Smith

Nov. 5, 2013

One of Loring’s proudest achievements was acquiring Lake Harriet as a park, almost completely through donations of land.