Information for this page comes from the book Looking Back at White Bear Lake:  A Pictoral History of the White Bear Lake Area, by Cynthia E. Vadnais.

This venue was located on the southwest corner of Bald Eagle Avenue and Bald Eagle Boulevard West, in White Bear Lake.

HOTEL BENSON

In about 1885, Frederick W. Benson operated the Hotel Benson at the Bald Eagle Lake resort.

Hotel Benson, 1900. Photo courtesy White Bear Lake Area Historical Society

BALD EAGLE HOTEL

During the early 1900s, C.E. Smith purchased the resort and changed the name of the building to the Bald Eagle Hotel.  The establishment boasted electric lights, running water, sanitary closets, bathhouses, boats, fishing tackle, and bait. They also offered “moving pictures” on-site and a dance hall. For almost four decades, the Smiths ran or leased out the hotel.

Vadnais:

During the late 1910s and early 1920s, the Smiths had the Smith’s Bald Eagle Air Dome [?] at the hotel.  They advertised that there were “moving pictures, dances and refreshments” with “dancing every day (except Sunday.)”  Dances cost 5 cents, for which customers received two dances (per couple).  There were also dances that included movies.  These had an admission price of 10 cents, which included one dance per person.

APARTMENTS

Vadnais:

In the 1940s, Joe Rogowski took over the hotel, converting it into apartments.

ROGOWSKI TAVERN AND BOATS

He opened Rogowski Tavern and Boats on the premises where tourists and locals could have a drink, rent a boat, or purchase snacks. The automobile had done away with the need for overnight housing for almost anyone coming from the Twin Cities to fish or enjoy other recreation on Bald Eagle Lake.

The building was torn down in the 1970s.