Historically speaking, you now have two lectures to choose from

A week away from a critical public meeting on whether Excelsior should open waterfront park land to a commercial development, the city's historical society tried to cancel a talk on waterfront history fearing it would promote the project.

Refusing to be hushed, local historian Scott McGinnis will speak and show pictures at 7:30 tonight on the "History of the Commons and Port of Excelsior" at the Masonic Hall in downtown Excelsior.

His talk will begin precisely one-half hour after the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society's replacement lecture -- on Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha Creek history -- at the Southshore Center.

"That is a little in our face," said Kristin Dowell, historical society president.

The society -- which runs a museum in the old Excelsior Depot -- withdrew its sponsorship of McGinnis' speech because he had been paid by developer Jon Monson to do historic research.

Monson used the historic information as background in preparing his proposal to build an eating, shopping and entertainment pavilion like one that stood on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in downtown Excelsior from 1904 to 1922. The site is at the end of what is now Water Street, near the public docks.

McGinnis sat next to Monson at public meetings on the proposal and answered questions about the history of the waterfront. And McGinnis has taken a public position in favor of the project, Monson said. That relationship between McGinnis and Monson gave the lecture a political overtone the historical society had not anticipated, Dowell said. "We knew we had to get ourselves out of this equation."

Of his lecture tonight, McGinnis said: "I am a professional historian. Jon Monson played no part in organizing this or paying for it. I want this to be entertaining, I want it to be fun, and it has nothing to do with the proposed development." He chose to go on as planned with his talk tonight because some people had already made plans to attend it, McGinnis said. "The timing is critical because the council is going to meet on the 16th. I want the information to get out there so that people can understand it and make informed decisions," he said.

'Totally objective'

Monson said that, at McGinnis' request, he will not attend the lecture.

"To Scott's credit, he doesn't want the issue to be about our group, but rather about the objective facts of the history of Excelsior," Monson said. "He has always been totally objective from my dealings with him. The facts will speak for themselves, relative to what used to be down there [on the waterfront] which then can be compared to what we are suggesting."

Monson said he has paid McGinnis for his time as a consultant, and beyond that McGinnis did hundreds of hours of research on his own for the public presentation. "Will it help or hurt our proposal? I don't know," Monson said. "But again, I want the facts to speak for themselves."

Deborah Morse-Kahn, a regional historian and author of nine books on Minnesota history, will replace McGinnis as the featured speaker at the event organized by the historical society. Morse-Kahn is critical of McGinnis' decision to go on with his talk.

"As long as he has accepted wages, he cannot speak to the public because he is on the payroll of the developer," Morse-Kahn said. "The day Mr. McGinnis cashed the developer's check for services rendered was the day that Mr. McGinnis was on board for all of the developer's plans and goals."

When the issue is settled by the city, she said, "he's free to say anything he wants -- not now." Morse-Kahn said her position on the project is neutral.

The City Council will consider the project at a meeting at 7 p.m. April 16.

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711