Peaceful, private Orono house on Lake Minnetonka’s Maxwell Bay listed at $6.25M

One person’s opinion helped clinch Shawn Bergerson’s purchase of an 11,529-square-foot lakefront house in Orono.

“My dad said, ‘If you can afford it, this is the house you should buy,’” Bergerson said.

Shawn and his wife, Annelie Bergerson, admired the design of the home on Lake Minnetonka’s Maxwell Bay: its soaring ceilings, walls of glass, spacious rooms.

“But what sold us is the privacy, the views and how quiet it is,” Shawn Bergerson said.

The house sits on more than two acres with 300 feet of lakeshore, and it looks out at Noerenberg Memorial Gardens, part of the Three Rivers Parks system.

The couple and their three sons moved into the house in 2005. But now the sons, aged 24 to 30, are out of the house. Shawn Bergerson, a retired investment manager, and Annelie Bergerson, a former travel agent turned stay-at-home mom, are both 60 and want to be closer to two of their sons who live in Minneapolis. So they’ve relocated to Golden Valley and put the Orono home on the market for $6.25 million.

Striking visual flourishes fill the house: pillars, wainscoting, arched windows, cathedral ceilings with wood paneling.

The primary bedroom on the main floor has a private patio, walk-in closet and recently remodeled bathroom with a steam shower. Other rooms include an informal dining room, wet bar, game room, family room, porch, office, exercise room and two laundry areas. A media room on the walk-out lower level has a high-end sound system and insulation to keep the room soundproof.

The four-season porch is one of Shawn Bergerson’s favorite areas.

“That’s where we would often entertain,” he said. “It has a lot of wood and high ceilings, a beautiful brick fireplace, views of the lake.”

In addition to the primary suite, the house has two bedrooms on its lower level and a spacious extra living space upstairs. One Bergerson son eventually took that upper-level bedroom (and, because it’s fairly soundproof, used it to practice his drums) but it could also house an in-law or nanny, Bergerson said.

The upper level also includes a living area, laundry, bathroom and walk-in closet, he said.

Other special features include a water-osmosis system that filters out contaminants, a central vacuum and four furnaces so different zones of the house can be at different temperatures. Much of the house also has in-floor radiant heat, including in the primary bedroom, porch, upper-level bedroom and most of the lower level.

Shawn Bergerson also liked spending time in the backyard. It originally held a pool, but the couple removed it when the kids left for college and installed a patio with a firepit in its place.

“And we put in a really good hot tub that overlooks the lake,” Shawn Bergerson said. “That’s a nice area to entertain or hang out, as well.”

But for the Bergersons, the home’s best quality is its peace and quiet. It’s set on an inlet on a part of Lake Minnetonka’s Maxwell Bay that’s a no-wake zone. That’s a designation the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District (LMCD) and Hennepin County instated to restrict boats to 5 mph and prohibit the controversial churn from wake boats, said Tom Tully, LMCD’s manager of code enforcement.

“We used to go out and actually do boat counts,” Tully said. “I think Hennepin County bases [its restrictions] on accidents, the danger potential.”

Before the no-wake restriction, “people might have been ripping through there,” he said.

The Bergersons’ house is about a mile from Orono’s well-regarded public schools. The Noerenberg Memorial Gardens, an area that stretches between the lake’s Maxwell and Crystal bays, also largely surrounds it.

The site was once home to Grain Belt Brewery founder Frederick Noerenberg and his family, who built an estate there in 1890. The family installed tiered rose beds, manicured lawns and an assortment of natural specimens under the English landscape-style influence.

Lora Noerenberg Hoppe, one of the five Noerenberg children, bequeathed the estate to the Park District when she died in 1972. At her request, the Park District razed the home and transformed the estate into a public garden.

The donation’s strict terms require the area to be tranquil, said Tom Knisely, a spokesman for the Three Rivers Park District. Food and beverages, swimming, launching or docking boats and pets are all prohibited.

“Privacy and quietness have always been really important to us,” he said.

The house looks out on a natural forest area of the park across the inlet, Bergerson said. The formal garden area — with its perennials, annuals, trees and other ornamental plants — isn’t visible from the Bergersons’ windows but is a quick car ride or 10-minute walk away, Shawn said.

“When boys were younger, we’d go in and check it out,” he said. “There was lots of wildlife: coyotes, foxes. … In the wintertime, when there’s ice on the lake, you can walk across the inlet over to that forest."

David Wells of Coldwell Banker Realty (612-845-8186, david@dkw3.com) has the $6.250,000 listing.