Great Northern Depot

For more than one-hundred years the Great Northern Depot has served as Wayzata’s most iconic landmark. Built to help reconcile relations after a long “feud” between Wayzata and Great Northern chairman James J. Hill, it was designed by Samuel Bartlett in the fashionable English Tudor Revival style. When completed, it was said to be the “handsomest” depot on the entire line and was considered modern with indoor plumbing and a water fountain. Trains serviced the depot with scheduled stops until 1958, when it became a “flag stop” serviced by request only. Great Northern finally closed the depot as an official stop in 1971 and donated it to the City of Wayzata in 1972. The depot has since been added to the National Register of Historic Places and today is home to the Wayzata Area Chamber of Commerce and the Wayzata Historical Society Museum.