New Dreams Meet the Old in the Land of Hiawatha A boutique hotel opens just blocks from Lake Minnetonka, preserving the past and looking toward the future. b y h e at h e r s t e i n b e r g e r
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Lawrence Welk, the Andrews Sisters, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones. Lake Minnetonka remains a Midwestern gem in the 21st century. Its shores are dotted with full-time residences and beloved cottages. Sightseeing boats ply its waters. The lake is also a haven for recreational boaters, with roughly 140 miles of shoreline, more than 30 protected bays and several waterfront communities to explore. Restoration and renovation One of those communities is historic Excelsior. Although the dance hall and amusement park are long gone, visionaries and dreamers still converge here to bring that Lake Minnetonka magic to life in new and unexpected ways. When Tyler Nelson first saw the 1902 Miller Block Building on Water Street, just a block and a half from the Port of Excelsior, it was a shambles. Abandoned for the better part of 30 years, the structure was on the verge of being condemned.
“Part of it actually was,” he recalls. “On the upper floor, there were apartments that hadn’t been rented since the early ‘90s. The roof was collapsing.” Yet Nelson saw the potential. Together with wife, Catherine, and partner, Jeff Verdoorn, he purchased the building in August 2019 — and very quickly learned that he had taken on a much more challenging project than he ever could have imagined. “I couldn’t touch it for six months,” he says. “I paid six figures before I could begin due to all the toxins. Then, the day I was done with the environmentals and got the go-ahead… well, it was March 2020.” Nelson didn’t let the COVID pandemic derail him, however. A licensed general contractor, he delved into the hard work of restoration and renovation, which had to be done in keeping with Historic Preservation Council standards. That was no small feat. Over the years, the building housed a hardware and tin shop, a milliner and a dry
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TYLER NELSON
here’s something a little bit magical about Lake Minnetonka, a 14,000acre glacial lake just 20 miles west of Minneapolis-St. Paul. For nearly 170 years, it has drawn people to its shores to play, to make memories and to dream. It started with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1855, when his celebrated “Song of Hiawatha” launched a Victorian holiday-making boom. Travelers patronized grand establishments like the 1879 Lake Park Hotel, and they cruised the lake aboard the 160-foot sidewheeler City of St. Louis and the 300-foot, 2,500-passenger steamer Belle of Minnetonka. The good times continued to roll after the turn of the 20th century, thanks to the 1905 arrival of the Twin City Rapid Transit streetcars and the lake’s distinctive Express Boats. Day-trippers could easily travel from the city and enjoy lakeside destinations such as the small city of Excelsior, with its Coney Islandinspired Excelsior Amusement Park and Big Reggie’s Danceland, which hosted
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