Jay Cooke State Park
June 1, 2020
Devil’s Kettle
June 1, 2020
Frank Lloyd Wright is best known for his organic architecture, designs that live in harmony with the environment around them. In his 70 year career he designed more than 1000 homes, schools, and office buildings, with only a portion of them being built.
One design that was completed was the R.W. Lindholm Service Station near Cloquet. Frank Lloyd Wright designed this as the first building to pay tribute to his plan for a utopian city called “Broadacre City” in 1927. It was completed in 1958.
This station is unlike any other gas station you will visit on your travels headed north. There is a unique, glass-enclosed, observation lounge above the station that you can visit when you stop by. It used to be furnished by a custom Wright-designed coffee table and egg-shaped chairs. Unfortunately these are no longer there. The station also has a 32-foot canopy made of copper that has a green patina finish from aging. To provide more natural light, Wright designed skylights in the service shop for the auto mechanics. Originally he planned for the gas hoses and nozzles to come from the ceiling to dispense fuel and eliminate the pump islands that we drive around today. This didn’t happen because local codes didn’t allow for that.
On March 18, 2018 the station was sold from the original owning family, the Lindolms, for $250,000. It was purchased by Broadacre, LLC of Minneapolis which is managed by William Andrew Volna. Still in operation today, people from around the world travel to Cloquet to admire this piece of architectural history designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
