List of evaluated roadside properties
Inspiration Point Wayside Rest
Lanesboro Overlook
SHPO number: FL-CRL-011
Inspiration Point Wayside Rest (also called Lanesboro Overlook) is a 9-acre site located along Trunk Highway 16 about 1.5 miles south of Lanesboro, in Fillmore County. The stone overlook wall has views of the farm land surrounding countryside in the Root River Valley. The property was built between 1934 and 1937 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Significant historic elements and status
The Inspiration Point Roadside Parking Area, built in 1934, is a wayside rest with a complex site design. It is one of seven properties in this inventory that were built by, or are suspected to have been built by, the FERA/SERA. It is one of more than 60 sites that were designed by, or whose design is attributed to, Arthur R. Nichols.
This property has been evaluated within the historic context "Roadside Development on Minnesota Trunk Highways, 1889-1960." It is recommended that the Inspiration Point R.P.A. is eligible for the National Register under this historic context because it meets the following registration requirements:
- Rare Federal Relief Property Type. This wayside rest is one of only seven properties in this inventory that retain stone picnic tables. (National Register Criterion A.)
- Significant to the History of Roadside Development. Inspiration Point is among the 68 Depression-era properties in the inventory that represent the MHD's first large-scale effort to construct roadside development facilities in the state. It is important as an example of the work of the MHD in partnership with federal relief labor. Together, the MHD and various New Deal agencies built a number of distinctive and well-constructed public facilities that met the objectives of roadside development while providing essential work and job training to the nation's unemployed. (National Register Criterion A.)
- Design Significance. Inspiration Point R.P.A. is a well-preserved example of the Roadside Development Division's naturalistic, rustic roadside parks. The site is a good example of the "National Park Service Rustic Style" as applied to a roadside development facility. It is one of few properties in this inventory that contains stone walls that were laid dry, without masonry. The rest area's stone features display the special labor-intensive construction techniques and distinctive use of indigenous materials that characterize both the Rustic style and federal relief construction in Minnesota. The site is also an important example of the roadside development work of prominent landscape architect A. R. Nichols, to whom its design is attributed. (National Register Criterion C.)
Accessible features on the site
- None