Village of Minnetonka Beach, MN

City of the Village of Minnetonka Beach is a small Hennepin County city on a boot-shaped peninsula in Lake Minnetonka, about 30 minutes west of Minneapolis. Locals usually call it The Beach. Narrow roads, shoreline homes, docks, City Hall Park, and the water itself shape the neighborhood, which covers roughly 296 acres. Its location makes the community feel like a lakeside village even while the Twin Cities remain close.

Early settlers were recorded by 1855, the area opened for settlement in 1872, and the peninsula was surveyed and named Minnetonka Beach in 1883. James J. Hill chose the shoreline for the Hotel Lafayette, which opened in 1882 as a Great Northern Railroad summer resort. The village incorporated in 1894 and became a fourth-class city under its 1922 home-rule charter. Today the city manages streets, utilities, docks, parks, shoreline rules, and a civic calendar built around the lake. The Lafayette Club, local beach traditions, and residents' care for the water keep the old resort character close at hand.