Hiawatha Golf Course added to the National Register of Historic Places

The Hiawatha Golf Course in Minneapolis has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit stewardship organization that among other things maintains a list of important landscapes and landscape features that are threatened, confirmed the course has been added to the National Register of Historic Places on Friday.

In February, the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Review Board nominated the course for inclusion on the registry. That nomination started a 45-day review process.

It is unclear how the new designation could affect plans to redesign the municipal course that first opened in 1934 and became a popular place for Black golfers to play.

Last fall the Minneapolis Park Board passed a $43 million plan that would reduce the course to nine holes and repurpose some of the remaining land.

Construction of the course required much dredging and filling because of its proximity to Lake Hiawatha. Some of the course is several feet below the lake level and has been prone to flooding over the years.

A year ago, TCLF enrolled Hiawatha Golf Course in its Landslide, or threatened, program and advocated that it be included on the National Register of Historic Places.

"The National Register designation of the Hiawatha Golf Course, an action we first called for on March 1, 2022, reaffirms the cultural and historic significance of the site," said Charles Birnbaum, president and chief executive of TCLF, in a news release. "The designation, which reminds us that African American history is American history, includes important information about Hiawatha that we believe is essential to any decision-making process about the course's future."