This month, I decided to write about a place where many kids in the upper part of North Minneapolis went during hot summer days – Camden Park. The first talk of having a park in the Camden area came from William Folwell in 1891 when he suggested acquiring land on both sides of the Mississippi River upstream from Camden because that was where the city’s water supply was taken from the river and he wanted to protect it from pollution. However, because of a lack of funds the idea was postponed. The original Camden Park, which shows up in the city directory in 1902 was down by the Mississippi River at about 41st Ave N and eventually became an automobile tourist camp.
The Camden Park that most people know about is the one that eventually became what is now Webber Park. In 1905 the park board designated land along Crystal Lake Rd (now Webber Parkway) for a “Camden Place Park” but the idea was abandoned because of protests from area property owners. In July 1908, the subject of creating a new Camden Park came up again and it was decided that the land would be acquired by condemnation. Even though the land acquisition wasn’t completed until early 1909, park superintendent Theodore Wirth had put a dam across Shingle Creek to create a pond and skating rink in 1908. In April 1909 Charles and Mary Harris Webber offered to construct a recreation building (designed by architects Long, Lamoreaux and Long) in the park at their expense. The recreation building would also include an outdoor swimming pool which would be fed by the creek water. The Webbers also said they would pay for a second story on the building with the stipulation that it be used for a branch library. The Webbers’ offer came with a couple of stipulations: that the park board construct an outdoor gymnasium (playground) for boys and girls, and that a permanent dam be built across Shingle Creek to provide water for the pool. They also asked that the building be named in honor of their son, John Deere Webber, who had passed away.
I need to stop here to put an end to an urban myth that I heard for years after I moved to Camden in 1979 and that had been told for decades before that. John Deere Webber did not drown in the Mississippi River! He passed away in bed at the age of 10, from Epidemic Meningitis. I know it may still say that he drowned in the history exhibit at the Kroening Center at North Mississippi Regional Park, but it’s wrong.
The playground was completed in 1909 and the recreation building, dam and pool were completed for the summer of 1910. The pool had separate hours for boys and for girls for many years after it opened. Eventually the water from the creek became too polluted to be used for the pool. Again, Charles and Mary Webber stepped in and paid to renovate the pool and the park. That renovation included using city water for the pool. The park was renamed Webber Park in 1939 to honor the many generous contributions that Charles and Mary Webber had made for the park.
Changes were made to the park over the years. Most notably the re-routing of the creek and moving of playground equipment in the early 1960s, and the eventual tearing down of the old pool and the field house/library building in the 1970s. A new pool and recreation center were completed in 1979 and a new library was built in 1980. Both that pool and library have now also been torn down, which brings us to the current natural Webber Pool and the Webber Library on the Parkway and Humboldt.
Whether it was called Camden Park or Webber Park, it has been a major source of recreation for the residents, especially the children of the Camden area of North Minneapolis for more than a century!