Neighbors Working to Improve Irvine Park

Irvine Park, one of St. Paul’s best kept secrets, is seeing a resurgence of late. Known for its picturesque fountain and surrounded by historic homes, the park is in need of some much needed improvements.

Neighbors with the Historic Irvine Park Association have been working hard this summer to showcase what the park and the area have to offer, as well as to raise funds to make some much needed infrastructure improvements.

“One of the things we’re really committed to is, this is a public space,” said Larry Jacobs, Vice President of the Historic Irvine Park Association. “It’s a community space, and we want to make sure that the full community feels welcome.”

“We get a lot of exposure to the lunch crowd,” added Lisa Garretson, another neighbor to the park working on its improvement. “We have a lot of folks in the hospital. You can tell because they’re in scrubs.”

But the association has designs to grow beyond attracting the lunch-time crowd.

This summer, the park has played host to a music series, which runs through September, featuring diverse artists spanning multiple musical genres; from Mississippi Delta Blues to Japanese drumming and classical.

Additionally, they have started a capital campaign to raise funds for park improvements. They are hoping to leverage city funds raised through the City’s Common Cents sales tax to repair hardscapes inside and outside of the park, including the crumbling staircase, and fix the centerpiece fountain.

 “We’ve raised a bit more than $100,000,” said Jacobs. “We’re off and running.”

Their ultimate goal is to raise $500,000 to offset what the City can contribute to improvements, which include relighting and restoring the metal fountain.

“It leaks right now,” Jacobs said. “We want to see if we can use that as an opportunity to extend an electrical line, so we can do music in the park for larger groups.” 

Jacobs said that, already, they have replaced over 20 trees in the park that were damaged by storms or Emerald Ash Borers and been able to repaint and make repairs to the park’s gazebo.

Nestled just blocks from West 7th and surrounded by historic homes, it’s been designated parkland in St. Paul since 1849.

Effectively abandoned in the 1950’s, the park saw major renovations in the 1970’s, with a replacement of the iconic water fountain and hardscape improvements led by neighbors in the area.

“It’s a cool neighborhood where within maybe a month of living here, I felt like I knew more about the history than where I came from in South Minneapolis,” said Garretson. “There’s a verbal history”

“There was a group of folks who came here who are referred to as the ‘urban frontiersmen,’” Jacobs said. “They fought to save all these houses. Many of them are still here.”

But the park hasn’t been updated much since then.

Jacobson and Garretson, who both have been living in the neighborhood for a little more than three years, agreed that they hope the programming and improvements will continue to draw more people to the area.

“I was walking the dogs earlier today, and someone was scoping out a vantage point to watch the Yacht Club [concert]. They said ‘you probably get annoyed with people walking through here all the time.’ And I was like, no, not at all, we love it,” said Garretson. “During the Covid, we felt what absence feels like. And so when you have people enjoying the park, I think you never take that for granted again.” 

“The number one thing is we want people to feel welcome,” said Jacobson. “We want them to feel like the welcome mat has been put out.”

Learn more:

Find the full schedule, including dates for Music in the Park and other seasonal events, as well as to contribute to improving Irvine Park, visit saintpaulparksconservancy.org/park-friends-groups/historic-irvine-park.