MINNEAPOLIS — This year marks a major milestone for a storied "urban" cemetery here in the Twin Cities.
This installment of our summer drone series "KARE in the Air" takes us over Lakewood Cemetery in uptown Minneapolis, a reflective landmark now celebrating 150 years of existence.
Aside being the resting place of some notable Minnesotans - including Vice President Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, Twins owner and millionaire businessman Carl Pohlad and singer Tiny Tim - Lakewood is home to a memorial chapel boasting byzantine mosaic art, and some seriously impressive monuments.
Cemetery officials say between 1850 and 1930 many prominent architects and sculptors actually designed funeral monuments as a side-hack.
Lakewood's website says when the cemetery was founded in 1871, four years after Minneapolis was incorporated and 13 years after Minnesota achieved statehood, the city had just 13,000 residents and its southern border was where Franklin Avenue sits today.
A home at the time would run you about $500. The land Lakewood now sits on, overlooking Bde Maka Ska, was purchased for $21,000.