edina country club district

The Edina Country Club District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, but was not included in the City’s heritage preservation overlay district. The Heritage Preservation Board (HPB) recommended re-designation of the National Register district as an Edina Heritage Landmark District pursuant to the 2002 amendments to the City’s historic preservation code.

The Country Club District is featured in several publications, including History and Architecture of Edina, Minnesota by William W. Scott and Jeffrey A. Hess (City of Edina, 1981), and Chapters in the City History: Edina by Deborah Morse-Kahn (City of Edina 1998).

DESCRIPTION
The Edina Country Club, located in the heart of the City, is a residential suburban neighborhood covering a 14-block area along Minnehaha Creek north of West 50th Street. The District boundaries encompass approximately 559 dwellings and a City park. The former Wooddale School and four private homes located within the original National Register district boundaries have been razed since 1980.

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The County Club District was platted in 1924 by Thorpe Brothers Realty Company and the majority of the homes were constructed between 1924 and 1941. The historical significance of the District is the product of its association with the themes of community planning, zoning, and suburban residential development. The Edina Country Club District was one of the first modern planned communities in Minnesota and the land use controls exercised by the original Country Club Association formed the basis of the municipal zoning ordinance adopted in 1929.

The District represents a significant, well-preserved concentration of historic domestic architecture and related historic landscape features. Examples of English Cottage (Tudor), Colonial Revival, Mediterranean (Spanish Colonial Revival), and Italian Renaissance Revival style homes predominate. In 1980, 36 percent of the buildings in the District were regarded as having “pivotal” historical significance and 63 percent were evaluated as “complimentary” (i.e., contributing to the historic character of the District). There has been relatively little postwar infill construction. In general, the District retains a high degree of historic integrity and the majority of the historic homes are in a good state of preservation. It is the city’s intent to re-evaluate the properties identified in the 1980 National Register documentation as pivotal, in particular the Liebenberg and Kaplan-designed model homes on Edina Boulevard and Moorland Avenue, for future consideration as individually designated Edina Heritage Landmarks.

EVALUATION OF LANDMARK ELIGIBILITY
On Sept. 24, 2002, the Edina HPB determined that the Edina Country Club District met the Edina Heritage Landmark eligibility criteria (City Code §850.20 subd. 2) on the basis of its association with important events that reflect significant broad patterns in local history and its embodiment of distinctive architectural characteristics. The HPB evaluated the significance of the District within the local historic context “Country Club District: Edina’s First Planned Community (1921 to 1950),” a historic preservation-planning unit is outlined in the Edina Historic Contexts Study adopted in 1999. The HPB found that it retained historic integrity of those features necessary to convey its historical and architectural preservation values.

 

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