architecture

Minnesota State Capitol

I learned something interesting recently. There are only four self-supporting marble domes in the world and the second largest one is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul. It is made of Georgia (US State) marble and weighs more than fourteen million pounds and has a diameter of 87 feet.

The largest is St Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome. It has a diameter of 138 feet. The other two are the Taj Mahal in Agra, India with a diameter of 58 feet, and the Rhode Island State Capitol with a diameter of 50 feet.

The building was renovated in 2017 and the interior is impressive.

Cloquet, Minnesota

Cloquet, Minnesota is about 20 miles west of Duluth. Part of it is within the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and is one of three administrative centers for the Reservation. As you pull into town you will see the R.W. Lindholm Service Station. Frank Lloyd Wright designed Ray Lindholm’s house in 1952, and since he knew Lindholm was in the oil business, he offered to design a gas station as part of Broadacre City (Wright’s urban planning concept). Wright completed the design and the station opened in 1958. It later became a Phillips 66 station. The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. It is still a working gas station.

Another Cloquet attraction is Gordy’s High Hat. In 2015, the drive in diner was featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.

Gordy and Marilyn Lundquist opened their door in 1960, to serve “hand pattied hamburgers, hand-battered Alaskan fish, homemade onion rings, and fresh blended malts” and they are still going strong. We stopped in for burgers and fries and they were yummy!