Much of the information and photos on this page come from the book Looking Back at White Bear Lake-A Pictorial History of the White Bear Lake Area by Cynthia Vadnais.  Additional assistance was provided by Sara Markoe Hanson at the White Bear Lake Area Historical Society.

The Lake Shore Inn was located in Cottage Park at the corner of what is today Circle Drive and Cottage Park Road, near Lion’s Park.

COTTAGE PARK CLUBHOUSE

The Cottage Park Association built the Cottage Park Clubhouse in 1882 to serve the people who lived in the surrounding cottages, which didn’t have kitchens.  By mid-1887, most of the cottage dwellers had built kitchens, so the Clubhouse had no purpose, and the interior was sold off.

WHITE BEAR HOSPITAL AND SANITORIUM

After standing vacant for several years, Thomas C. Fulton and J.E. Ramley bought it and transformed it into a hospital and sanitorium (presumably for tuberculosis).  A 1910 ad said that the capacity was 30 patients.  On February 23, 1912, it became the Minnesota Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital.  Next it became the Lake Shore Sanitarium from 1914 to 1918.

LAKE SHORE INN

In around 1920, Charles Bennett took over the vacant property and made the large building into an inn with 30 rooms and a large dining room that seated 200.  The restaurant was known for its chicken dinners.

A four-line classified-type advertisement can be found in the Minneapolis Tribune on October 10, 1920.

 

Note that the ad below mentions dancing to Ed Smith’s Society Syncopators.  In a caveat I’ve never seen before, it cost 25 cents to dance, but nothing to listen.

 

 

 

 

By 1932, Charles Bennett’s son Carl and his wife were running the hotel.

The contents of the Lake Shore Inn were auctioned off on June 25, 1934.

COLLETTS’ LAKE SHORE INN

The Lake Shore Inn was taken over by Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Collett in 1935, and they renamed it after themselves.  They ran it for a few years, and then, once again, the building stood empty.  An ad from August 24, 1935, did offer music.

Again called the Lake Shore Inn, now with Mrs. I. O’Leary as Proprietor, the opening in September 1941 was advertised as a “large hotel with over 20 rooms.”  By 1942, however, an ad described “apartments and meals,” “rooms by Day, Week or Month,” which appears to be more like an SRO apartment building or a boarding house.  Mrs. O’Leary also offered dinner party service.

Attempts have been made to use the building as a nursing home or an apartment building, but zoning laws killed both plans, and most of the building was demolished in 1946.  The private residence that stands in its place is said to incorporate a structure that resembles the old Cottage Park Clubhouse.