Wayzata Depot was built in 1906 by James J. Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railroad. The English Tudor structure, designed by architect Samuel Bartlett, was noted for its hot water heat and indoor plumbing and at one time was considered the handsomest depot on the line. The first train came to town on August 24, 1867, when Wayzata was the end of the line for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, predecessor of the Great Northern, and the first depot stood east of here near Broadway Avenue. As the line expanded westward, Wayzata citizens were outraged when a crew began laying ties on the stage road in front of their shops, threatening to subject the town to cinders and sparks, and this began the famous feud between Wayzata and Hill. Hill is said to have threatened to wipe Wayzata off the map; he razed the Broadway Depot in 1893 and moved the train stop a mile east to a small depot named Holdridge, though he also provided the Ferndale platform stop for influential friends on the west end of town. After twelve years of residents trudging through marshy terrain to reach the train, Hill relented and built the present depot, restoring Wayzata’s place on the line. The railroad was central to Wayzata’s Golden Age from 1867 to 1929, as people from Southern states arrived by train to enjoy Lake Minnetonka’s cool summer breezes, then traveled by large steamboats to numerous hotels, helping the village flourish and grow. In 1971, the Great Northern closed the depot and donated it to the city of Wayzata, and today coal, grain, and mixed freight trains pass through Wayzata with Burlington Northern Santa Fe destinations across the western half of the United States.