738 Lake Street East
Wayzata, MN, USA

Hands-on Learning Is Coming to Lake Minnetonka’s Shores

Hands-on Learning Is Coming to Lake Minnetonka’s Shores
by Emily Gedde | Jan 2023

Wayzata center will offer STEM-based education.
Hands-on learning is making its way to the shores of Lake Minnetonka with the renovation of a former home for railroad foremen and their families into a lakefront learning center as part of the Panoway on Wayzata Bay’s $30 million-, multi-phase project. Construction of the Sandvold Lakeside Learning Center is set to begin in April with the goal of opening by September 2023, but construction schedules can impact that time frame.

Peter Hitch is the executive director of the Wayzata Conservancy, the nonprofit group behind the project. As part of the founding committee behind the Minnesota Children’s Museum, Hitch has a passion for providing opportunities for youth. “The learning center will provide hands-on learning for children,” he says. “It’s going to be wonderful.”

Panoway on Wayzata Bay, a decade-long project, was born as a municipal utility project in 2012 and gathered citizen input to flourish into the vision it has become. The intention of the effort is to restore, protect and enhance Wayzata’s downtown lakefront. The learning center will complete phase two of three phases, according to Hitch.

The learning center will offer science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education with a hands-on learning focus to help children develop a variety of skills. Elementary- and middle-school aged youth will have opportunities to learn about ecology, sailing education and more. “Any way you can imagine having that type of STEM learning [will be available],” Hitch says. “Our vision also includes classes on ice … It’s the general concept of hands-on and being outdoors.”

Hitch says the project was selected to receive a $200,000 award from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources in early September will “top off” funding needed for this portion of the overall project. “There’s really a legacy push to this,” he says. “This stuff has been here. It’s not new. We want to bring it back, so people can enjoy their history.”

As a public, private partnership with the City of Wayzata, Panoway is funded through state, local and private dollars. “We’ve raised about $850,000 privately for this project,” Hitch says. “The goal is to raise another $9 million privately to get us all the way through phase three.”

Phase three of the project includes a $3.5 million creation of an Eco Park (complementary to the learning center) and the $3 million expansion and remodel of the Depot Park surrounding the historic Wayzata Depot. Both are slated to begin in 2024. “It’ll be a big part of the learning,” Hitch says of the parks. “The learning center will bring kids outside to the Eco Park to play in the dirt.”

With a long way to go, Hitch speaks highly of the progress made and the excitement for the future. “What we’re trying to do is make Wayzata a better place for its residents and people coming to see us,” he says. “This is a chance to make Wayzata better for our kids.”

History Lesson
Wayzata’s section foreman house is home to a rich history and has been designated on the National Register of Historic Places, Hitch says of the house built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1902. Section foreman houses were built approximately every 30 miles to the West Coast for the foremen and their families. Hitch says the Wayzata structure is one of six remaining in the country.

While there will be some changes to the home, Hitch says something will remain the same. “The outside of it is going to look just like it did, down to the color of the paint,” he says.

A Home for History: Wayzata Section Foreman House From Great Northern Days To Be Restored With Support From BNSF

A Home for History: Wayzata Section Foreman House From Great Northern Days To Be Restored With Support From BNSF

Written by BNSF Railway Corporate Communications

A little more than 10 years after its establishment, Wayzata became the original gateway to Lake Minnetonka when St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (SP&P) extended its tracks to the town.

In 1878, railroad “Empire Builder” James J. Hill gained control of the SP&P, which would become part of the Great Northern Railway (GN), a BNSF predecessor. The GN, which eventually became Burlington Northern Railroad (BN), put Wayzata on the map as a tourist destination and opened a route to the western part of the country.

“The arrival of the railroad fostered Wayzata’s early growth as the gateway to Lake Minnetonka with tourists from around the country feeding the hotels, steamboats and burgeoning country summer estates nearby,” Peter Hitch, executive director of The Wayzata Conservancy, said. “The sound of the railroad horn signaled the arrival of these crowds early on and even as the trains pass through today, that sound still invokes memories of that wonderful past in the minds of the town’s residents.”

The railroad enabled the Wayzata farming community to sell goods that boosted the economy and again made Wayzata a central location for the movement of freight.
“In 1906, Hill commissioned a new depot to be built downtown, right on the shores of the lake. He was present at the grand opening and proclaimed it the handsomest depot on the entire Great Northern line,” Wayzata Historical Society President Aaron Person said.
Hill’s depot was in service until 1971 then later donated to the City of Wayzata. It eventually became a railroad museum operated today by the Wayzata Historical Society and the home of the Greater Wayzata Area Chamber of Commerce.

As the GN expanded west, it built small, unassuming houses approximately every 20 miles for the section foremen and their families. Only two of these houses remain in Minnesota. The section foreman house in Wayzata is currently being restored to its former glory.

“The section house was built in 1902 and it was a pretty simple house,” Person said. “Great Northern built section houses to be identical so that section foremen families could be placed anywhere and their furniture would fit no matter where they needed to move.”

In the 1960s, BN sold the home, and eventually the city of Wayzata took ownership. Over time, the house became run down, but the Wayzata Heritage Preservation Board and Wayzata Historical Society started a campaign for the city to save it.

In 2021, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the city is now in the process of renovating it. It will be used as a new vibrant lakefront interactive learning center that will provide children the opportunity for experiential hands-on learning.

The BNSF Railway Foundation donated a $25,000 grant to the Wayzata Conservancy to assist with the restoration of the section foreman house.

The house will be a part of a new Eco Park that features educational programming about early the 20th Century railroading and the influence of GN on the geographic, economic, and social development of Wayzata. The project will restore the shoreline marsh and improve water quality while providing STEM-based learning. Eco Park will extend to the boardwalk alongside BNSF’s tracks.

Section Foreman House Rehabilitation

Background
As a central and pivotal building for the City, the Section Foreman House will be rehabilitated for reuse as a new vibrant lakefront learning center providing indoor and outdoor classrooms and community space as part of the new Eco Park. The learning center will feature educational programming to learn about early 20th-century railroad operations and the Great Northern Railroad's influence on Wayzata's geographic, economic, and social development.

The purpose of Eco Park is to restore shoreline marsh and improve water quality while providing STEM-based learning opportunities. Eco Park will encompass the Section Foreman House and extend to the east with a boardwalk.

Preserving History: Wayzata's Section Foreman House

Preserving History: Wayzata's Section Foreman House
May 24, 2021

I was thrilled to learn that the Wayzata Section Foreman House has officially been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Wayzata Section Foreman House was built in 1902.

The home was originally 32 feet by 16 feet. It had two rooms each on the first and second levels. It cost $750 to build. The 1910 census shows that the home was occupied by the section foreman and his large family.

Through the years, the Section Foreman House underwent several changes, but the integrity of the original home was never diminished. In 1926, electric lights were installed.

In 1943, the home was lifted to install a concrete foundation and basement. It was at this time that the home expanded; a first-level bedroom and living room increased the structure to 32 feet by 30 feet. A year later, toilet facilities and sewer lines were installed.

Dr. Charles N. Brooks bought the house from the railroad in 1962. The following year, Brooks built a new entrance on the south end complete with a front porch and an expanded living room. The City of Wayzata later acquired the home and has owned the house and the property ever since.

The Section Foreman House now joins the Great Northern Depot in the Historic Register.

The house will be restored and re-purposed into a new lakefront learning center, providing indoor and outdoor classrooms and community space.

A new eco-park surrounding the Section Foreman house will restore the shoreline marsh and improve water quality.

The park includes a pier extension of the boardwalk and opportunities to create “Living Eco-Classrooms” along the lake shore for STEM-based learning.

Plaque dedication ceremony at Wayzata's Section Foreman House highlights future plans for historic site

WAYZATA — Preservation of the Section Foreman House in Wayzata for future generations is gaining momentum. At a ceremony on Monday, July 15, the Wayzata Heritage Preservation Board and the Wayzata Historical Society unveiled a plaque highlighting the history of the historic home that sits between the railroad tracks and Lake Minnetonka in downtown Wayzata. In attendance were city staff, state Sen. David Osmek, Hennepin County Commissioner Jan Callison, representatives for U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, and other stakeholders. The plaque “will be another instrument” to tell the Section Foreman House’s story, Sue Sorrentino of the Wayzata Historical Society, said during the dedication ceremony. The Great Northern Railroad built the Section Foreman House in 1902 as a place for the section foreman and his family to live. A section foreman was tasked with keeping about 20 miles of railroad in good working order. The original home was 32 feet by 16 feet, but over the years it saw additions and improvements. The city of Wayzata bought the house in 1988, and in recent years it has fallen into disrepair. The Section Foreman House is believed to be the last one of its kind in Minnesota, and for years there have been efforts to preserve the piece of Wayzata history. “There’s a lot of momentum now, more so than probably has ever been” to preserve the house, Wayzata City Manager Jeffrey Dahl said during the ceremony. In June, the Wayzata City Council gave the city’s Heritage Preservation Board the go ahead to apply to get the Section Foreman House on the National Register of Historic Places. Nate Leding, the chair of the preservation board, told Lakeshore Weekly News they will turn in the application in October. Then, at a July 2 City Council meeting, the Wayzata City Council approved $60,000 in funds for a stabilization plan to shore up the Section Foreman House in the short term until “grander improvements” can be made, Dahl said during the ceremony. “It (the Section Foreman House) is in shaky shape, so it’s a good thing we’re getting at it, lest it fall down and become just historical lumber instead of a house,” Mayor Ken Willcox said during the meeting. Stabilization efforts will be done later this summer and fall. John Crippen, of New History, said during the ceremony that his company is “proud” to be helping out with the project. “This is what we love to do, is to take old places that have created a sense of place and help reimagine with communities to make them into a new place. So taking the best from the old and channeling it into a new future that works for folks,” Crippen said. “When we can do that — celebrate the history and have a modern purpose — we get a win-win for everybody involved.” Initial work will include stabilizing the house, keeping the water out of the basement, and getting it ready to withstand another Minnesota winter. In the future, the plan is to transform the Section Foreman House into a place the people of Wayzata can enjoy for years to come. “As we lay the groundwork for the future, it’s also important that we’re embracing our past. And this designation is an important step of many that will come in the next year or two to make this site available to the public,” Andrew Mullin, the board chair of the nonprofit Lake Effect Conservancy, said during the ceremony. The conservancy was created to advocate and raise private money to support construction of the Lake Effect Project, which aims to revitalize downtown Wayzata and better connect people to Lake Minnetonka.

Wayzata’s Lake Effect Project
Restoring the Section Foreman House to its former glory is part of the Lake Effect Project. The multi-phase project calls for a boardwalk between two of Wayzata’s historic lakefront buildings, the Section Foreman House and the Depot. At the Section Foreman House site, the Lake Effect Project calls for a full restoration of the house, the creation of an Echo Park, improved access to the site, public restrooms, restoration of the nearby wetlands and improvements to the nearby holding pond. “This lakefront effort is more than a source of beautification and recreation. It also provides us an opportunity to do educational opportunities around the history and the environment,” Mullin said. “In the end, this site will be an interactive learning center.” STEM education programs, provided by the YMCA and other local stakeholders, are in its second summer outside the Section Foreman House, and later this summer historic programs will be offered at the site, Mullin said. Once the house is fully restored, the intent is to offer similar programming. The first phase of the Lake Effect Project will begin this fall, with construction on Lake Street and to build a plaza at the municipal parking lot next to CoV. “It’s really fitting that, at a time when in two months you’re going to see a lot of construction on Lake Street moving forward with the Lake Street plan, that we’re here,” Dahl said during the ceremony, “and the plaque is really a symbol of preservation to complement all the things that are happening — we’re also preserving what’s really important to the community.”

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WAYZATA — Preservation of the Section Foreman House in Wayzata for future generations is gaining momentum.

At a ceremony on Monday, July 15, the Wayzata Heritage Preservation Board and the Wayzata Historical Society unveiled a plaque highlighting the history of the historic home that sits between the railroad tracks and Lake Minnetonka in downtown Wayzata.

In attendance were city staff, state Sen. David Osmek, Hennepin County Commissioner Jan Callison, representatives for U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, and other stakeholders.

The plaque “will be another instrument” to tell the Section Foreman House’s story, Sue Sorrentino of the Wayzata Historical Society, said during the dedication ceremony.

The Great Northern Railroad built the Section Foreman House in 1902 as a place for the section foreman and his family to live. A section foreman was tasked with keeping about 20 miles of railroad in good working order.

The original home was 32 feet by 16 feet, but over the years it saw additions and improvements. The city of Wayzata bought the house in 1988, and in recent years it has fallen into disrepair.

The Section Foreman House is believed to be the last one of its kind in Minnesota, and for years there have been efforts to preserve the piece of Wayzata history.

“There’s a lot of momentum now, more so than probably has ever been” to preserve the house, Wayzata City Manager Jeffrey Dahl said during the ceremony.

In June, the Wayzata City Council gave the city’s Heritage Preservation Board the go ahead to apply to get the Section Foreman House on the National Register of Historic Places. Nate Leding, the chair of the preservation board, told Lakeshore Weekly News they will turn in the application in October.

Then, at a July 2 City Council meeting, the Wayzata City Council approved $60,000 in funds for a stabilization plan to shore up the Section Foreman House in the short term until “grander improvements” can be made, Dahl said during the ceremony.


“It (the Section Foreman House) is in shaky shape, so it’s a good thing we’re getting at it, lest it fall down and become just historical lumber instead of a house,” Mayor Ken Willcox said during the meeting.

Stabilization efforts will be done later this summer and fall. John Crippen, of New History, said during the ceremony that his company is “proud” to be helping out with the project.

“This is what we love to do, is to take old places that have created a sense of place and help reimagine with communities to make them into a new place. So taking the best from the old and channeling it into a new future that works for folks,” Crippen said. “When we can do that — celebrate the history and have a modern purpose — we get a win-win for everybody involved.”

Initial work will include stabilizing the house, keeping the water out of the basement, and getting it ready to withstand another Minnesota winter. In the future, the plan is to transform the Section Foreman House into a place the people of Wayzata can enjoy for years to come.

“As we lay the groundwork for the future, it’s also important that we’re embracing our past. And this designation is an important step of many that will come in the next year or two to make this site available to the public,” Andrew Mullin, the board chair of the nonprofit Lake Effect Conservancy, said during the ceremony. The conservancy was created to advocate and raise private money to support construction of the Lake Effect Project, which aims to revitalize downtown Wayzata and better connect people to Lake Minnetonka.

Wayzata’s Lake
Effect Project
Restoring the Section Foreman House to its former glory is part of the Lake Effect Project. The multi-phase project calls for a boardwalk between two of Wayzata’s historic lakefront buildings, the Section Foreman House and the Depot.

At the Section Foreman House site, the Lake Effect Project calls for a full restoration of the house, the creation of an Echo Park, improved access to the site, public restrooms, restoration of the nearby wetlands and improvements to the nearby holding pond.

“This lakefront effort is more than a source of beautification and recreation. It also provides us an opportunity to do educational opportunities around the history and the environment,” Mullin said. “In the end, this site will be an interactive learning center.”

STEM education programs, provided by the YMCA and other local stakeholders, are in its second summer outside the Section Foreman House, and later this summer historic programs will be offered at the site, Mullin said. Once the house is fully restored, the intent is to offer similar programming.

The first phase of the Lake Effect Project will begin this fall, with construction on Lake Street and to build a plaza at the municipal parking lot next to CoV.

“It’s really fitting that, at a time when in two months you’re going to see a lot of construction on Lake Street moving forward with the Lake Street plan, that we’re here,” Dahl said during the ceremony, “and the plaque is really a symbol of preservation to complement all the things that are happening — we’re also preserving what’s really important to the community.”

Letter: Restoring the Section Foreman house

Written as an open letter on SW News Media by Gustafson of the city of Wayzata's Heritage Preservation Board.

Built-in 1902, the Wayzata Section Foreman House has been owned by the city of Wayzata since 1988. The property is just under an acre with over 250 feet of lakeshore on Wayzata Bay. One might argue it is one of the most valuable pieces of property the city owns, with a value of over $2 million.

Current plans by the city of Wayzata and the Lake Effect Conservancy call for the renovation of the structure, to my understanding upwards of $1 million of investment. There are questions as to when these funds can and will be raised and what purpose the building will serve once renovations are completed.

Where is the community pride?

Many Wayzatans and visitors to our community ask me about the current conditions of the structure which include boarded-up windows, chipping paint, deteriorating siding, and an apparent crack in the foundation.

Many boaters have also asked me, “What’s the deal with that little house along shore?”

The Wayzata Heritage Preservation Board will be dedicating a plaque this year marking the property as a local historic landmark.

Volunteers in Wayzata have already expressed interest in cleaning up this house with paint and landscaping.

There’s community pride!

As long-term plans for the rehabilitation of this historic house take shape, it’s time to whip it into shape in the short term to the high standards we set in Wayzata.

In June, on the grounds of the Section Foreman House, YMCA will host another Lake Exploration Camp where dozens of children from all over will learn about the Lake Minnetonka ecology.

What better way to showcase community pride than to give this piece of Wayzata history a little makeover.

If you or someone you know would like to join us in exploring this endeavor

Suburban Neighbors - Wayzata Section Foreman House

Suburban Neighbors
By Ralph Thornton

A retired couple is moving into a lakeshore home on Lake Minnesota, but their solitude may be jarred by 30 trains a day roaring by within 20 feet of their back door.

Dr. Charles N. Brooks and his wife, long-time Minneapolis residents, converted a former section foreman's house on the Great Northern railroad right-of-way at Wayzata into a retirement cottage.

The couple has owned the lot next door and kept a garden there. When the old railroad house became available, the Brooks' four children purchases the house, with its 70 feet of lakeshore, for their parents.

Building the Section Foreman House

“The section house was built in 1902 and it was a pretty simple house,” Person said. “Great Northern built section houses to be identical so that section foremen families could be placed anywhere and their furniture would fit no matter where they needed to move.”

Section foremen oversaw all track maintenance and daily inspections along the 20-mile section of track near their house. Many houses were in isolated areas, so the Wayzata house was ideal as it was downtown on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, with the lake beach in the foreman’s backyard. Wayzata’s location was also close to the Twin Cities, allowing foremen access to everything they needed and more.

Photo Courtesy of Wayzata Historical Society: Section foreman house in the early 1900s