125 Things You Might Not Have Known About St. Louis Park: Part III

Editor's Note: As St. Louis Park gets ready to on Sunday, we're presenting 125 unique tidbits of local history in a five-part series. Parts I and II are and . Check back on Saturday and Sunday for parts IV and V.

1. St. Louis Park is home to one of the most unique tree houses in the world. Built in the late 1980s, Tucker's Tree House on Minnetonka Boulevard is not presently open for tours, but many passers-by stop to snap pictures.
2. The newspaper, The Echo, was started in 1916.
3. St. Louis Park High School graduate Jeff Diamond was the senior vice president-general manager of the Minnesota Vikings in the 1990s before taking a job with the Tennessee Titans.
4. , now a protected wetland, was once an 80-acre lake with a resort hotel. 
5. The St. Louis Park boys soccer team won three straight state titles from 1972 to 1974.
6. Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, who together directed acclaimed films such as "Fargo" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", grew up in St. Louis Park.
7. Benilde High School for Catholic Boys, located at 2501 Highway 100 S, was built by the Christian Brothers in 1955. In 1974, Benilde merged with St. Margaret’s Academy, a Catholic girls’ school in Minneapolis.
8. St. Louis Park has been named one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" the last five years.
9. was built in 1967 at 6500 W. 26th Street and dedicated that September. Peter Hobart was an outstanding student, president of the student council, and well liked by his classmates. He died of Hodgkins Disease while in college in 1963.
10. The Medical Center started in 1951 as the St. Louis Park Medical Center. There were 11 doctors on staff.
11. The 1987 St. Louis Park American Legion baseball team won the state title.
12. In the late 1800s, St. Louis Park had a number of bustling mills along the Minnehaha Creek.
13. The 1860s village that became St. Louis Park was originally known as Elmwood, which today is a neighborhood inside the city.
14. In 1899, St. Louis Park became home to the Peavey–Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator, the world's first concrete, tubular grain elevator. It provided an alternative to combustible wooden elevators.
15. The most recent parcels of land annexed by St. Louis Park are the Kilmer Pond and Shelard Park neighborhoods. Both came to St. Louis Park from Minnetonka because of St. Louis Park's ability to provide sewer and water service.
16. St. Louis Park has a total of 51 parks.
17. 1954 St. Louis Park graduate Bob Owen was the alternate captain of the 1960 gold medal winning mens Olympic hockey team.
18. From 1940 to 1955, growth in St. Louis Park averaged the equivalent of 6.9 people moving into the city every day. Sixty percent of St. Louis Park's homes were built in a single burst of construction from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.
19. According to U.S. Census numbers, St. Louis Park's population hit a high point in 1970 with 48,883.
20. WCCO-TV sports director Mark Rosen grew up in St. Louis Park.
21. was completed and occupied by city staff on October 18, 1963.
22. Andreas Papandreou, prime minister of Greece from 1981 to 1989 and then again from 1993 to 1996, lived in St. Louis Park at some point in the early 1950s.
23. The St. Louis Park girls synchronized swimming team has won 22 state titles.
24. While writing for St. Louis Park High School's student newspaper, The Echo, current New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman interviewed then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.
25. Cedar Manor Elementary School was built at 9400 Cedar Lake Rd. in 1957. It closed in 2010.

Special thanks to the St. Louis Park Historical Society and Patch reader John Froom for helping to compile this list.