In July 1871, under the direction of Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad president Frank Clark and agent Jacob Stewart, company surveyor Gates A. Johnson platted the original townsite that shaped the central portion of White Bear Lake. During the 1860's, railroad officials had purchased the land that became the nucleus of the village, and this plat thereafter governed its form and growth. Its basic plan divided most residential blocks into plots measuring 75 by 150 feet, creating spacious lots for summer cottages and permanent homes, while blocks 46 and 62 were reserved for resort hotels. The plat established street and avenue names, set most roadways at 60 feet wide, made Stewart Avenue 90 feet wide and Clark Avenue 150 feet wide, and laid out track routes for the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad and the Stillwater and St. Paul Railroad. It also preserved lands along the lake between Fourth and Seventh Streets as public parks and dedicated the roads to public use, helping White Bear Lake grow in an orderly and farsighted way as a resort and residential community.