Golden Valley American Legion Celebrates ‘Rare Success Story’

Five months after moving into a space formerly occupied by a Red Lobster, the new home of Chester Bird American Legion Post 523 in Golden Valley officially celebrated its grand opening.

“I sensed when I arrived that I liked this building and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I liked this building,” said Dan Wiley, national commander of the American Legion. “And then I found out it was formerly a Red Lobster. Yeah, I love Red Lobster. Mystery solved.”

The former restaurant’s new beginning is a rare success story. Legion officials say it comes at a time when many veterans’ organizations are closing.  

Craig Hartman, commander of American Legion Post 523, said the goal of moving into the renovated building along Highway 55 was to create more visibility and generate more business. The post’s former home was tucked behind Highway 100 and was purchased by Breck School to expand its campus.

A special ceremony was held April 23 for American Legion Post 523.

“It was terrible for customer service, was terrible for customer accessibility. You had to put it in GPS to find it,” said Hartman of the former home. “So this place offers the best of… everything’s here, because here we can flourish, we can run a business, we can engage in our, basically, lawful giving proceeds through community engagement and gaming, lawful gaming, and we can literally generate that money to put back out into society.”

The new Golden Valley location opened in October 2025 without fanfare. It waited until April 23 to hold its grand opening ceremony so the national commander could attend.

Post 523 currently has close to 200 members, but with the increased exposure of this new site, leadership hopes to have that number closer to 300 by this time next year.

Crystal | Golden Valley | New Hope