Deephaven

History

Deephaven was settled in 1876 by Saint Louis attorney Charles Gibson. Gibson built a summer house in an area known as "Northome" and began promoting the area as a vacation destination for Southerners. In 1879 he advocated for the construction of the 150-room Hotel Saint Louis, the area's first grand hotel. The community was connected to the Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railway to serve both the hotel and local cottagers. The Minnetonka Yacht Club was founded in Deephaven in 1882 and incorporated in 1889. One of its co-founders, Hazen Burton, built a home named "Chimo" in Deephaven in 1890. A train depot was built near the property so that the Burtons could commute to their department store in Minneapolis. The name "Deephaven" can be traced back to this depot's name. In 1893 Burton commissioned local boat builder Arthur Dyer to develop a new kind of sailboat called a racing scow. When the Onawa debuted in 1893, it was disqualified for winning nearly every regatta it entered. The rules were eventually modified, and racing scows became popular worldwide. The Onawa is displayed at the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society Museum in nearby Excelsior. Lake Minnetonka fell out of favor as a vacation destination in the 1890s. The Hotel Saint Louis suffered financially and was demolished in 1907. In its place, Walter Donald Douglas of the Quaker Oats fortune and his wife Mahala built a 27-room estate named "Walden". Douglas died in the Titanic disaster in 1912, but Mahala and her French maid Berthe Leroy survived. Mahala returned to Deephaven as a widow and lived there until her death in 1945. Deephaven's Cottagewood General Store, opened in 1895 by Ralph M. Chapman, served as a grocer to tourists along Lake Minnetonka. The store is one of Deephaven's most notable…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. Minnetonka Boulevard serves as a main route.

Race & ethnicity