Historic Hotels of Lake Minnetonka

Before Lake Minnetonka became a landscape of year-round homes, residential neighborhoods and private lakeshore estates, its shores were dotted with resort hotels, boarding houses and summer inns. Some were substantial destinations for travelers arriving from across the country; others were modest establishments serving families, boat passengers and visitors who stayed for a season.

Explore by area: Grand resort hotels | Wayzata | Deephaven & Cottagewood | Excelsior | Mound & Upper Lake | Other historic inns | Hotels today

The Grand Resort-Hotel Era

The arrival of the railroad in Wayzata in 1867 made the lake more accessible to summer visitors. Hotels grew around steamboat landings and transportation routes, and the lake developed a reputation as a resort destination. As roads, cottages and private estates expanded, many of these establishments disappeared, but their names remain part of the history of the shoreline.

Hotel St. Louis - Deephaven

Built in 1879, the Hotel St. Louis was among the first grand resort hotels on Lake Minnetonka. The three-story building stood approximately 217 feet long on high ground in present-day Deephaven, overlooking St. Louis Bay and Carsons Bay. Broad verandas offered guests lake views and summer breezes. The hotel was developed through interests associated with Charles Gibson, the prominent St. Louis attorney whose family also established the nearby Northome estate. It drew visitors seeking cooler summers and later hosted notable lawn-tennis tournaments.

After the resort era declined, the hotel was demolished in 1907. The site passed to Walter and Mahala Douglas, who built an elaborate lakeshore estate. Walter Douglas, a co-founder of the Quaker Oats Company, died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912; Mahala survived. The property's progression from resort hotel to private estate illustrates how Lake Minnetonka's shoreline evolved into residential lakeshore property.

Hotel Lafayette - Minnetonka Beach

The Hotel Lafayette opened on July 2, 1882, on the Minnetonka Beach peninsula between Crystal Bay and Lafayette Bay. Developed by railroad magnate James J. Hill and designed by architect LeRoy Buffington, the enormous resort was built to bring vacationers to Lake Minnetonka by train and steamboat. Its approximately 300 guest rooms, sweeping verandas, three grand staircases and staff of about 150 made it one of the lake's most ambitious hotels. Formal dances, band concerts and tennis were part of the summer social scene.

The hotel entertained nationally prominent visitors, including President Chester A. Arthur and former President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1888, the future scholar and civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois worked there as a busboy. But changing travel patterns and financial pressures weakened the grand resort business. On October 4, 1897, the wooden hotel was destroyed by fire. Hill later transferred the property to the founders of the Lafayette Club. The first clubhouse opened in 1900; after another fire in 1922, the present clubhouse was built in 1924. The former hotel's grounds thus remain part of Minnetonka Beach's social and architectural landscape.

Lake Park Hotel / Tonka Bay Hotel - Tonka Bay

Built in 1879, the Lake Park Hotel was an early resort establishment in what is now Tonka Bay. It was established as part of the Chautauqua movement, which brought educational programs, lectures and cultural gatherings to summer resort settings. The hotel opened more than two decades before Tonka Bay incorporated as a village in 1901, when lakeshore tourism was helping shape the community.

In 1908, the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, operator of the area's streetcar transportation system, purchased the property and renamed it the Tonka Bay Hotel. The new name reflected a later phase of the lake's resort business, when transportation companies helped connect summer destinations with visitors from the Twin Cities. The hotel closed in 1911. Its history spans the lake's early resort culture, the incorporation of Tonka Bay and the expansion of streetcar-era tourism.

Hotel Del Otero - Spring Park

Built in 1892, the Hotel Del Otero was a resort landmark in Spring Park, when visitors arrived by railroad and continued around Lake Minnetonka aboard excursion steamers. Its proprietor was G. F. Hopkins, and the hotel's Spanish name was understood locally to mean "Hotel of the Mound." The building stood along today's Shoreline Drive, on the site now occupied by The Mist condominiums. Separate Del Otero cottages occupied the adjoining property to the east, while the resort's Casino stood on the property now used by the Lake Minnetonka Water Patrol.

The hotel grew during Spring Park's heyday as a summer destination. The Great Northern Railroad reached the community around 1882, and during the 1880s more than fifteen trains a day reportedly brought hundreds of tourists to the area. Steamboats met trains and carried passengers to resorts around the lake. Nearby attractions included a dance pavilion, a baseball park and a playground. The Hotel Del Otero burned in 1945. Its former grounds, cottages and recreation sites offer a direct connection between Spring Park's resort history and its present-day lakeshore development.

Hotels and Boarding Houses Around the Lake

Arlington House / Arlington Hotel - Wayzata

Built in the spring of 1880 for approximately $25,000, the Arlington House, also called the Arlington Hotel, was the largest resort hotel ever built in Wayzata. Hotelier Mr. Hyser developed the property with encouragement from railroad magnate James J. Hill. The imposing three-story hotel had 104 guest rooms, wraparound verandas, a central tower, spacious parlors, a dining room with 16-foot ceilings, electric guest-call bells and one of Wayzata's earliest telephones. Its position between the railroad and the northwestern shore of Wayzata Bay allowed guests to arrive by train and connect with excursion steamboats.

In 1881, James J. Hill purchased the Arlington and did not reopen it for the 1882 season, the same year his much larger Hotel Lafayette opened at Minnetonka Beach. The Arlington stood unused for years and burned to the ground on December 18, 1890. The former hotel grounds were subsequently divided into residential properties. A particularly tangible survivor of this history is the Gee House, built in 1928-1929 on the Arlington site; it is now recognized as a local historic landmark. The hotel's story illustrates the competition between railroad-controlled resorts and the later conversion of Lake Minnetonka's resort land into residential neighborhoods.

Wayzata and the North Shore

Before modern hotels, Wayzata welcomed summer visitors in lakeside hotels, family-run inns and boarding houses near Lake Street, the railroad depot and Wayzata Bay. Each of the following establishments is part of that history.

Minnetonka House - Wayzata

Opened around 1870 by Henry Maurer, the Minnetonka House stood on Lake Street near Broadway, in the heart of early downtown Wayzata. By 1876, it had grown to approximately 50 rooms. It belonged to the first generation of Wayzata lodging establishments serving visitors who reached Lake Minnetonka by rail and sought summer accommodations close to the water. The building was demolished in 1900 after the grand resort boom had subsided. Its former downtown setting is now part of Wayzata's established commercial and residential lakefront district.

Gleason House - Wayzata

The Gleason House grew out of a summer boarding house operated by A. O. Matson on the same downtown block as the Minnetonka House. After a change of ownership in 1871, the property expanded under H. L. Gleason and became a long-running Wayzata lodging establishment. The house accommodated approximately 30 guests behind the 600 block of Lake Street. Unlike the large resort hotels that disappeared around the turn of the century, the Gleason House continued receiving visitors well into the twentieth century. The Wayzata architectural survey records its closure in 1964; another local historical account places demolition in 1966. Its unusually long life links the earliest resort era to modern Wayzata.

Northland Inn - Wayzata

The Northland Inn was located in the Bushaway Road area, north of LaSalle Street, rather than in the downtown Lake Street hotel district. The history of Bushaway Road and its neighborhood records that John Field later built two houses on the former Northland Inn site. This makes the inn an especially useful example of how a former lodging property became residential land. The available historical index identifies the inn, but its opening date, operators and precise closing date require further confirmation.

Day's Inn and Dudley's Hotel - Wayzata

Historical hotel indexes also preserve the names Day's Inn and Dudley's Hotel among the smaller accommodations associated with Wayzata's resort period. Unlike the Minnetonka House, Gleason House and Northland Inn, the source material reviewed so far does not establish reliable construction dates, proprietors, exact sites or what later occupied these properties. They remain distinct historical names for further investigation rather than being assigned invented details.

Deephaven, Cottagewood and Nearby Shores

The Deephaven shoreline developed a distinct resort landscape of hotels, boarding houses and later summer cottages. The best-documented establishments deserve individual treatment, including their eventual disappearance and the residential landscape that followed.

Maplewood Inn / Rustic Lodge - Deephaven

The Maplewood Inn, also identified in historical sources as Rustic Lodge, was a prominent early lakeside inn associated with the Maplewoods area of Deephaven. It belonged to the period when wooded shorelines and resort lodging drew summer visitors from Minneapolis and farther afield. A contemporary newspaper report dated October 8, 1903, records the Maplewood Inn fire, marking the loss of the establishment. The name survives in the history of the surrounding neighborhood, where former resort and estate land became private residential property.

Hotel Keewaydin - Cottagewood

The Hotel Keewaydin served visitors in Cottagewood, the lakeshore neighborhood in Deephaven that developed around summer cottages and lake recreation. Unlike the grand railroad hotels, Keewaydin belongs to the more intimate history of seasonal accommodation and neighborhood life on Lake Minnetonka. Its location in Cottagewood connects the former hotel to a neighborhood still known for its historic cottages, narrow roads and access to the lake. Read the dedicated history of the Hotel Keewaydin at Cottagewood.

Harrington House - Deephaven Area

The Harrington House is another historic lodging name associated with the Deephaven area. The available index material preserves its name, but does not establish a dependable opening date, operator, precise location or later use of the property. It is listed separately here so that its identity is not lost among the larger hotels while those details are checked against the original historical accounts.

Excelsior

Historic Excelsior supported both large waterfront hotels and smaller boarding houses. Its early visitor economy was concentrated around Water Street, Second Street, the Commons and the steamboat landing. Several former hotel sites can be tied to recognizable downtown addresses today.

Galpin House / Excelsior House - Excelsior

The Galpin House traces its beginnings to 1854, when Charles Galpin established a lodging house on the site associated today with 10 Water Street and the adjacent theater property. After enlarging the hotel in 1867, Galpin lost the building to a 1870 fire and rebuilt it as the Excelsior House. The replacement was a substantial three-story hotel, approximately 46 by 135 feet, with about 50 rooms and wide verandas facing the lake. Guests could rent rowboats and fishing tackle, making the establishment both a place to stay and a base for recreation on Lake Minnetonka. The building was later expanded under Mrs. H. F. Wait, before another fire destroyed it.

La Paul House / Excelsior Bay Hotel - Excelsior

The La Paul House opened in 1896 on the west side of Water Street, continuing the hotel tradition at the site associated with the earlier Galpin and Excelsior houses. It was later known as the Excelsior Bay Hotel, adopting that name in 1926. The hotel was damaged by fire in 1928 and subsequently demolished. Its story reflects the repeated rebuilding of Excelsior's principal waterfront hotel property and the gradual disappearance of the village's large downtown lodging houses.

White House Hotel - Excelsior

Built in 1872 at 1 Water Street, the White House Hotel stood prominently overlooking Excelsior Bay and the Excelsior Commons. Originally called the Simpson House, it was renamed to distinguish it from the nearby Sampson House. Additions in 1886 and 1896 enlarged the building. The Woman's Club of Minnetonka acquired it in 1921 for use as a community house; by 1929 it had become a home for older residents. The former hotel was demolished in 1946, leaving its lakeside address part of Excelsior's changing downtown landscape.

Sampson House - Excelsior

The Sampson House, at 500 Second Street, was one of Excelsior's longest-surviving resort hotels. Leroy Sampson rebuilt the inn in 1895 following a fire, creating an establishment with more than 40 rooms, each originally heated by a wood-burning stove. Around 1910, his son Walter Sampson modernized the property with steam heat, electric lighting and screened porches. Still operated by the family in the mid-twentieth century, the hotel closed in 1960 and was demolished in 1962. An apartment building subsequently occupied the property, a direct example of the conversion of historic resort sites into residential use.

DeGroodt Summer House - Excelsior

The DeGroodt family came to Excelsior from Pennsylvania in 1875 and established a large boarding house on Third Street. The family's name later became closely associated with the village's commercial life: Oscar DeGroodt operated a hardware business, while Reuben DeGroodt served in civic roles and worked as chief clerk at the White House Hotel. The family's surviving 1899 house at 369 George Street is a designated historic property, but should not be confused with the earlier Third Street boarding house. These buildings illustrate how family-run visitor accommodations were woven into Excelsior's residential and business districts.

Maple Inn - Excelsior

The Maple Inn was a smaller boarding establishment at approximately 441 Second Street. The building dates to about 1885 and was in use as a boarding house by 1901, according to Excelsior's downtown historic district survey. Its location on Second Street placed it among the supporting lodging houses near the larger waterfront hotels, rather than on the principal Water Street frontage.

Kalorama Cottage - Excelsior

Kalorama Cottage at 262 Lake Street is an especially valuable surviving example of Excelsior's resort-era accommodations. Mrs. Henrietta F. Tucker built it in 1884 as a double cottage for summer rentals, then enlarged it in 1885 into a single boarding house and added servants' quarters. Peter R. Johnson purchased it in 1934 and converted it to a private residence. The historic building subsequently served as a duplex and is recognized as a local heritage landmark, connecting the visitor economy of the 1880s to an identifiable present-day property.

Edgewood Hotel and Long View House - Excelsior

The Edgewood Hotel and Long View House also appear among the historic lodging establishments documented for the Excelsior area. They represent the wider network of hotels and smaller guest houses beyond the best-known Water Street properties. Their names are preserved in the historical hotel index, but their individual owners, operating dates, street locations and later property histories need verification against the original accounts before more specific claims can be made.

Mound and the Upper Lake

The western reaches of Lake Minnetonka supported a network of resort hotels, inns and boarding houses around the communities that became Mound. Each historic establishment below is treated separately so its identity can be connected to local people, lake landings and properties as additional evidence is verified.

Chapman House - Mound

The Chapman House was a significant early resort-era hotel serving the Upper Lake. It is one of the more extensively documented establishments in the Mound-area hotel record. Its story belongs to the era when steamboat transportation connected western Lake Minnetonka with other resort communities.

Other Early Mound and Upper Lake Inns

Other named establishments included the Mound City Hotel, Dewey House, Buena Vista, Palmer House and Maple Heights Inn. The Mound City name recalls the early settlement that developed into present-day Mound. Maple Heights Inn also appears in a separate local history of Mound. Their names survive in the historical record, although individual building histories and precise locations have not yet been established here.

Other Historic Lake Minnetonka Hotels and Inns

Smaller hotels and specialized accommodations also appeared around the lake, particularly in the early settlements and established resort communities.

Newark Hotel and Minnetonka Hotel - Minnetonka Mills

The Newark Hotel and Minnetonka Hotel were early establishments associated with Minnetonka Mills, the historic settlement near the lake outlet. The Minnetonka Hotel is documented repeatedly in accounts of early lake hospitality. Both predate the later grand railroad resorts that transformed the lake into a nationally known summer destination.

St. Alban's Hotel and Health Resort

St. Alban's Hotel and Health Resort was an establishment whose historical name reflects the popularity of health-oriented resort accommodations. Its precise site and services have not yet been established in the available source indexes.

Radisson Inn

The Radisson Inn appears in the historical record of Lake Minnetonka lodging, representing a later chapter than the grand nineteenth-century resort hotels. Further primary-source documentation is needed to identify its exact location and operating history.

Appledore / Central Hotel - Excelsior

The names Appledore Hotel and Central Hotel are connected in historical accounts of Excelsior hospitality. Both are retained here as historical names pending confirmation of their precise sequence and building history.

May Place / Mix Hill House

The historical names May Place and Mix Hill House are cross-referenced in the lake hotel record. They are preserved together here rather than presented as two independently documented properties.

Lake Minnetonka Hotels Today

Although the nineteenth-century resort hotels have largely disappeared, overnight hospitality has returned to the lakeshore in a new form. Two contemporary boutique hotels illustrate the continued appeal of staying close to the water and the communities around it.

The Hotel Landing - Downtown Wayzata

The Hotel Landing, at 925 Lake Street in downtown Wayzata, is a modern boutique hotel near Wayzata Bay. Its guest rooms and suites, spa, dining and event spaces connect visitors with the walkable shops, restaurants and waterfront of downtown Wayzata. In a different architectural form, it continues the community's longstanding tradition as a destination for lake visitors.

The Shoreline Hotel - Spring Park

The Shoreline Hotel in Spring Park represents a newer generation of Lake Minnetonka hospitality. This 27-room boutique lakeside property features lake-facing accommodations, a marina, a beach and Cabana Anna's restaurant. Its location on the western lake recalls the era when guests traveled beyond Wayzata and Excelsior to enjoy the Upper Lake's resorts and summer accommodations.

These two hotels represent a new chapter in the lake's hospitality history. Together with the former resort sites, they show how hospitality remains part of Lake Minnetonka's identity.

Historic Hotel Names and Today's Lake Minnetonka

Former hotel sites matter to the history of the lake's present-day communities. A hotel landing could influence the placement of a road or a commercial center. A former resort property could later become a cottage district or be divided into residential lots. In other cases, only a name in an old advertisement, photograph or plat survives.

To explore the places connected with these establishments, see the Lake Minnetonka bays, points, islands, and communities guides. For the broader story of how transportation, resorts and private estates shaped the lake, visit Lake Minnetonka History.