Edina, MN

Two Edina developments became models for how twentieth-century suburbs were designed, sold, and experienced. Thorpe Brothers Realty platted the Country Club District in 1924 as one of Minnesota's first modern planned communities. Samuel Thorpe installed major utilities before marketing lots and imposed detailed rules for buildings, trees, and even garbage-can placement. The 14-block district contains about 555 homes; 507 were built from 1924 through 1944 and remain subject to local preservation review when major exterior work is proposed. Its physical order came with deliberate exclusion. Perpetual deed covenants barred nonwhite owners and occupants, and realtors also turned away some Jewish buyers. The U.S. Supreme Court made private racial covenants unenforceable in 1948. The preserved revival-style streets and the discriminatory terms under which properties were sold belong to the same development history.

Southdale Center changed a different part of Edina when it opened in 1956 as the nation's first fully enclosed, climate-controlled mall. It began with 800,000 square feet and now has about 1.3 million; the original underground delivery tunnel remains in use. The mall became the best-known piece of Greater Southdale, a district that also contains a regional hospital, medical practices, offices, housing, restaurants, and other retail centers. Edina has over 3,000 active businesses, including over 300 retailers, over 100 restaurants and cafes, hundreds of medical and professional-service firms, and the hospital. These businesses and institutions give the city several substantial employment and service districts beyond its residential neighborhoods. North of Southdale, 50th & France offers another commercial pattern at the Minneapolis boundary.

Nearly 175 businesses occupy the two-city district, with 19 acres and about 500,000 square feet of commercial space on the Edina side. Shops, restaurants, professional services, and three public parking structures sit within a compact street network next to the Country Club neighborhood. The Edina Art Fair uses these streets on the first weekend of June, temporarily replacing ordinary commercial traffic with artist booths and festival activity. Grandview, near Highway 100, forms another distinct district with 800,000 square feet of commercial space. Daily errands, dining, office work, and events are spread among several centers; Southdale's enclosed interior is one piece of that geography. Centennial Lakes Park has turned part of Greater Southdale into an outdoor civic space among offices, shops, and housing.

Ten acres of ponds are edged by paved paths, bridges, seasonal plantings, and public art. The adjoining Edina Promenade adds three-quarters of a mile of separate pedestrian and bicycle paths linking retail, residential, and recreation sites. In summer, radio-controlled model boats cross the water on several evenings and weekends, and a farmers market operates on Thursdays from June through the first Thursday in October. The park's use changes again after temperatures fall. Its three connected ponds are groomed for skating in winter, with the next season scheduled to open in late 2026. A landscape built as part of a commercial district serves as a market, model-yacht course, walking route, art setting, and winter rink.