History of Beltrami Neighborhood
Beltrami Park and in fact the Beltrami neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis is named for Italian explorer Giacomo Costantino Beltrami (1779-1855). Ironically, Beltrami never visited Northeast Minneapolis, or Southeast Minneapolis or any other part of Minneapolis. Anthony (later Fort Snelling), and from there setting off to discover the source of the Mississippi,
which he decided was a lake which he named Lake Giulia (Julia) after Giulia Medici (who disliked him intensely). He was off by about 90 miles. The source of the Mississippi is a bit south southwest at Lake Itasca. Before the citizens named the park for Beltrami, it was a park called “Maple Hill Park”, and before that, it was Maple Hill Cemetery. Before it was a cemetery, it was part of the Cummings farm which the family received from the U.S. government in 1849. The first burials at Maple Hill Cemetery date back to 1851, two years before The Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery at 29th and Cedar Avenue in South Minneapolis, which is currently considered the oldest Cemetery in Minneapolis, however the 20 acre cemetery remained private until its official dedication in February 1857. This gave the settlers of St. Anthony Township a place for their dead which was not disturbed for more than forty years. Unfortunately, Maple Hill Cemetery was not well maintained, and in later years became subject to vandalism. In one such case, two young boys took up some of the stone markers and threw them down a hill. A short time later, the boys sickened and died, resulting in the legend that the graveyard was cursed and the boys died because they had disturbed the dead. This may have also led to rumors at the time that the cemetery was haunted. The cemetery was officially closed by the Minneapolis Health Department on April 1st, 1889, halting further interments. By this time, Maple Hill Cemetery had about 5,000 occupants. Relatives of the occupants were asked to move their loved ones and by 1894, according to a city engineer’s report, 1321 bodies and 82 monuments had been moved; only a fraction of those who had been interred there. Most had been moved either to Lakeview Cemetery or to Hillside Cemetery
Maple Hill grounds were poorly maintained as were the records, and after being officially closed it only grew worse. In 1906, residents of the Beltrami neighborhood took matters into their own hands and disregarding curses or ghosts, hitched up their horses and cleared the land, not only of debris, but of tombstones as well. There are reports of panicked priests sitting on the piles of tombstones frantically writing down the names of those on the markers. The monuments, piled into a ditch included a Civil War Veterans Memorial. City officials, understandably outraged vowed the arrests and convictions of the perpetrators, although no arrests were ever made. To add to the sad story of Maple Hill Cemetery, it was reported that the workmen assigned to disinter the mortal remains of those still residing at the cemetery often broke open the coffins and robbed the dead. In those days, people were often buried wearing rings, necklaces, bracelets and other jewelry. One Beltrami resident who lived there at the time, identified only as “May”, remembered watching the caskets being opened and the workmen picking up watches and rings. Apparently there were no reports of the “curse” working against them. In 1908 the Minneapolis Park Board Purchased Maple Hill Cemetery for $8,000. The City Council contributed $5,000 for initial improvements. Those improvements included returning the Civil War Monument to its current location and placing a wire mesh fence around it to protect it from vandals. The fence remained on the site until the early 1920s, when neighbors complained that it was too unsightly and the Park Board declared it too costly to repair. In 1908 an Improvement Association was formed and the cemetery was restored at the cost of $20,000, fencing it in, but reserving 10 acres for a children’s playground. The Playground area was eventually awarded to the Park Board, and the park was renamed Maple Hill Park. The first plan, proposed by Maple Hill Park Superintendent Theodore Wirth, was a picnic ground for most of the park, with a small section where no bodies were buried reserved for a school garden for the children of Pierce School, across the street from the Park. Early plans also called for a skating rink with a warming house, which was approved in 1913. The warming house would also be used for meetings and lectures. Wirth however commented in a 1909 report that the park was not much frequented and probably wouldn’t be as long as it “retains the appearance of a cemetery.”
In 1916, vandalism was still a serious problem in the cemetery section. The Civil War Monument had been vandalized and stones carried away from the cemetery, leaving little evidence of who was buried there. In August of that year, the park was re-dedicated as Beltrami Park, and new construction began, although concerned citizens protested the bulldozing of broken monuments to the edges of the park. Dahlquist found in the park the plaque listing the names of Grand Army of the Republic soldiers who had been buried at Maple Hill. A new, updated plaque there reads in part: “Although men’s thoughtless actions have deprived them of their right to individually marked and cherished graves, the children of future ages will gather here to honor them.”
Today, the ice rink is no longer present, although it did produce the city’s first qualifier for the U.S. Winter Olympic Team, Charles Leighton, who was to represent the U.S. in the speed skating event at the 1940 winter games. Unfortunately, those games, scheduled to take place in Sapporo, Japan, were cancelled because of World War II. The kiddie pool constructed in 1953 is still very active during the summer months, and a much newer park house, is still used, for among other things, neighborhood meetings and social events. In addition, there are six bocce ball courts, a basketball court, and even a monument for Count Giacomo Costantino Beltrami himself. The Ice rink has vanished, and there is not one to be found anywhere in the Beltrami neighborhood. There are also a few of the former occupants still in residence, but all that remains as evidence of the park’s former function are three grave markers. One is for a woman who died in 1862 at age 30, a second marker about 100 feet north reads simply “My Husband”, and a third is for Eldridge M. Tinny, who died in 1880. The markers were raised and set in cement in 1973. They are not the only remaining residents. Those whose relatives could not be located for permission to be moved were left where they were, and there they remain to this day. By Thomas St. James
