Como Park Begins

In the 1840's, Charles Perry owned land around the lake then called Sandy Lake, farmed potatoes there, and renamed it Como Lake after Lake Como in the Swiss-Italian Alps, his birthplace. Landscape designer Horace W.S. Cleveland advised the City of Saint Paul to acquire land around Como Lake for a landscape park intended for physical and moral satisfaction, and in 1872 the Minnesota Legislature authorized the Saint Paul City Council to issue $100,000 in bonds to buy 260 acres bordering the lake. Today, nearly 400 acres make up Como Regional Park. Cleveland devoted his life to helping developing cities reserve parkland for their citizens because he believed in the healing power of nature for all people regardless of economic means. In 1888, the City of Saint Paul hired him to work with the newly formed Park Board and create a plan for Como Park. The vision that became Como Park Conservatory originated with George Frederick Nussbaumer, a German-born, university-educated botanist and engineer who had worked at Kew Gardens in England and later at a nursery in France. Impressed by his horticultural knowledge, Cleveland encouraged him to immigrate to the United States, and after settling in Saint Paul, Nussbaumer was named Superintendent of Parks for the City of Saint Paul in 1891, a position he held for 31 years.

St. Paul, Minnesota · United States