page_title: Wayzata, Minnesota
section_title: Cottage period
hierarchical_section_title: Wayzata, Minnesota / History / Cottage period
caption_attribution_description: English: City of Wayzata - Wayzata Depot
context_page_description: Wayzata is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is approximately 9 miles west of Minneapolis in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Situated on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, the city is popular among boaters, shoppers, and restaurant goers. It is one of Minnesota's most affluent municipalities.
  As of the 2010 census, the population was 3,688. In 2012, Newsweek ranked Wayzata High School, in Plymouth, one of the top 1,000 public high schools in the United States.
context_section_description: As tourism faded in the 1890s, a new era for Wayzata began. Many urban dwellers began to construct summer cottages along the shores of Lake Minnetonka as the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul grew. While many of these new cottages were quite modest, some were monumental. Wayzata became home to a large collection of grand country estates along the Ferndale Shore. Notable families who built country estates there include the Bells, Boveys, Crosbys, Peaveys, Pillsburys, and Washburns.
  Despite the influx of new summer residences, Wayzata barely grew during this period. That changed in 1905, when the village council voted for a Reconciliation Ordinance to repair relations with Hill and his railway (now known as the “Great Northern”). He responded by building a new train depot near downtown Wayzata. At the depot's grand opening celebration in 1906, he declared it the “handsomest” on the entire Great Northern line.
  Wayzata was also connected to a new form of water transportation in 1906. The Twin City Rapid Transit Company launched six new “Express Boats” on Lake Minnetonka that served as an extension of the Twin City streetcar system. Designed by Royal C. Moore of Wayzata, the boats provided fast, reliable transportation for Lake Minnetonka residents. There were connections to streetcars in Excelsior, Deephaven, and Tonka Bay. In Wayzata, passengers could transfer onto Great Northern Railway trains. This convenient service was very popular until about 1920, when local roads began to be improved for automobiles. The service was discontinued in 1926 after several years of declining ridership. Some of the Express Boats were scuttled (purposely sunk) in the lake that year. One, the Minnehaha, was raised from the depths in 1980, restored, and returned to passenger service in 1996.
  As the cottage era continued, downtown Wayzata rebounded with residences and small commercial centers at each end of Lake Street. Wayzata State Bank was established in 1909 as the area's first local financial institution. The bank's first president was Moore, who owned Moore Boat Works on Wayzata Bay. He eventually sold his boat business to Eugene Ramaley. Motorboating was all the rage by 1920, and Wayzata was at the center of the trend with two nationally famous boat makers, Ramaley and Wise, based there. In 1929 the Ramaley Boat Company merged with Wise Boat Works and Walker Boat Works to form Minnetonka Boat Works. Minnetonka Boat Works eventually became well-known manufacturers and distributors of Tonka-Craft and Chris-Craft power boats.
caption: Great Northern depot, built 1906
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