3012 Shoreline Dr
Wayzata, MN 55391, USA

3012 Shoreline Drive, Wayzata, MN, USA

Narrative Description of Buildings

Built in 1887 by Charles Telford and Kate Thompson, the Thompson Summer House is situated in the middle of a deep lot that slopes toward the shore of Lafayette Bay of Lake Minnetonka, in the city of Minnetonka Beach. The rear, north elevation is nestled into and protected by the slope of the lot. The cottage is situated about 125 feet above the average lake level and about 100 feet from the shore of Lake Minnetonka. The front of the house is oriented almost due south, toward the lake, and angles only slightly to the east. The yard is largely open and grassy with the exception of several very old maples and a row of tamaracks along the east lot line.

Primary entrance to the property at the time the house was built was from the rear, or north end, of the lot, where the main road through early Minnetonka beach was located. (Initial access to the area was from the railroad about a block north of the cottage.) Despite the construction of Hennepin County Road 15 along the lakeshore south of the Thompson Summer House, primary access is still from the north end of the lot. A carriage house originally stood toward the rear of the property, housing a single carriage and horse, but has since been demolished. A wood shed and an outdoor privy with a covered walkway to the house have also been demolished. A small storage building from the same period still remains on the rear of the property.

According to the present owner and Thompson family descendant, the Thompson Summer House was designed by an unidentified architect. The same architect designed a similar house on the lot immediately west of the Thompson property for Mrs. Kate (Harris)Thompson’s brother and sister-in-law and their family. The Samuel A. Harris (President, Northwestern National Bank) house was demolished and replaced in the 1970s. The Thompson Summer House is vernacular in nature, yet stylishly finished with Queen Anne style windows, contrasting siding, a complex roofline, and a spacious porch. Doors to the outside on all elevations speak to its function as a summer house and to its relationship with the external environment.

The house itself is a 2 14 story, L-shaped building with a single story porch that wraps around the house porch on the south (front), west and north sides. The complex massing rests on original stone piers and some more recently poured concrete. Exterior painting reproduces the original coloration: white walls with dark green trim. The first story elevations are constructed of board and battens while the second story is finished with clapboards. The roofline of the building is a mix of hip and gable with a gabled dormer window on the south slope of the hip. Two simple brick chimneys surmount the roof, one on the kitchen wing and the other in the central hip roof portion of the house. The roof is finished with asphalt-shingles.

The wide screened porch affords a view of the lake, and when sitting, the road is not discernable. All of the porch extensions are under the shed, rather than hipped roofs, adding to the casual cottage-like nature of the house. The solid lower interior and exterior walls of the porch are faced with wood clapboards. Plain square porch posts separate the expanses of the screen and divide sections of siding. An interior bench rail at seating height lines the outer wall of the porch. A door under the west side of the porch allows entry to a crawlspace under the porch and under the southern portion of the house for maintenance and repairs. A smaller porch on the east elevation is of the same construction as the wrap-around porch, but the exterior walls are constructed of board and batten.

Window fenestration is comprised of single and paired twelve-over one light wood sash windows at the “front of the house, and two-over-two light windows toward the “back” of the house. Window arrangement is asymmetrical. The most interesting arrangement of lights is the two-story bay window on the east elevation. It is comprised of a piano window flanked by two-over-two light windows at the first story and a pair of Queen Anne windows under a shed roof at the second story. The first floor arrangement surrounds the built-in buffet in the dining room.

The many windows visible on all elevations of the Thompson Summer House provide considerable light and air to the house interior. The interior is largely unchanged from the time of construction and its material integrity is key to the significance of the property as a summer home. The interior of the first floor contains a large living room, formal dining room, small bathroom (formerly the game storage room), and the kitchen. Behind the kitchen (north) is the laundry room, and behind that, dug into the hill, is the storm cellar. Between the kitchen and the dining room is a back entry hall that connects to the small side porch and a back stairway to the maid’s bedroom above the kitchen. In the kitchen is a small, cast-iron, stove which supplements the heat from the dining room’s oil stove.

Interior finishes including the exposed board and batten exterior walls at the first floor and in the second-story hallway, give the house its cottage quality. Stained and varnished beadboard ceilings throughout the remainder of the main floor as well as horizontal tongue and groove walls over a vertically nailed wainscot (all pine) create a cozy atmosphere. The living room contains a large, soft red brick comer fireplace with an overmantel of beadboard and bric-a-brac/book shelves. The fireplace adjoins the open stairway with simple square balusters to the second floor. A spooled screen visually separates the stairwell hall from the living room proper. Together, the screen, the stainvay, and the comer fireplace comprise the focal point of the house. Narrow oak flooring is covered with worn oriental style rugs. The adjoining dining room is similarly finished with the built-in buffet in the bay window as the visual focus. Both the dining room and the living room have doors to the main front porch. The kitchen is painted white (it is likely that it was always painted) and the walls are unfinished with the exposed exterior board and battens and the interior studs and girts. Although the sink and electric stove are modern, built-in cupboards and the original four panel door with black porcelain knob have been retained.

Alterations to the historic fabric of the main floor are few and include the modern sink in the kitchen and the conversion of the game storage room into a small bathroom in the 1950s.

The second story of the house contains six bedrooms. Only five are presumed part of the original plans for the house. Three interconnected bedrooms, across the front of the house, were intended for the Thompson family and their guests. A very small single bedroom at the end of the hall opposite the master bedroom is finished entirely in beadboard and has a curved ceiling. The rear bedroom, intended for the maid, is located at the top of the kitchen stairs. The sixth bedroom is a ca 1930s addition to the north side of the house. The hall is finished with the original beadboard ceilings and board and batten walls. The front three bedrooms however have been finished with composition board panels framed in small wood strips. Both the walls and ceilings are finished this way and appear to be a later (ca. 1930s?) renovation.

The master bedroom, located at the head of the main staircase, occupies the southeast comer of the house and has a dressing room to the north. A pair of windows with a window seat under them face east, and a single window faces Lake Minnetonka to the south. A wainscot or dado of grass cloth finishes the walls of the master bedroom. The master bedroom is connected to the center two bedrooms both by the main hallway, and through interconnecting doors in shared bedroom walls. Each of these two smaller bedrooms has one of the centrally-located pair of south-facing windows. These interconnected rooms were most likely planned as children's bedrooms. Each bedroom has white-painted wood furniture, some of it original, including washstands, dressers, chests of drawers, nightstands, and vanities. A sixth bedroom was added above the back porch by the 1930s, at the same time reconstruction of the second-floor bathroom was carried out.

The maid’s room, at the rear of the house, was altered by the construction of the wheelchair access ramp on the north facade of the house, the result of Mrs. G. Thompson’s virtually incapacitating stroke. The easternmost windows on the north elevation vj^ere removed and replaced with a door and access ramp in the 1930s. The ramp runs from the high north end of the lot, over the cellar and laundry room to the second story, which because of the way the house is nearly banked, is nearly at the same level. Both the interior and exterior of the Thompson Summer House is extremely well-preserved, and contributes to its significance under Criterion C, as representative of the type of seasonal home built around Lake Minnetonka during the late 1800s.