Rice Park, seven years older than New York's Central Park, was designated a public square in 1849 by territorial pioneer John R. Irvine and Henry M. Rice, a territorial delegate and later United States senator after statehood. Rice, for whom the park was named, was a native of Vermont who arrived at Fort Snelling in 1839 and was active in the fur trade and in treaty negotiations with the Sioux and Chippewa Indians. The park was little used and largely uncared for until 1860, when Mayor John S. Prince procured shade trees to improve the grounds. In 1872, the Great Western Band began summer evening concerts there, and in 1873 the chief of police in Memphis, Tennessee, sent a pair of squirrels as a gesture of goodwill. Among the notable events held there was an 1883 reception marking the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, attended by President Chester A. Arthur, General Ulysses S. Grant, and General William T. Sherman.
