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Lindholm Oil Company Service Station, Cloquet

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Lindhol Oil Company Service Station, Cloquet

Lindholm Oil Company Service Station, 202 Cloquet Avenue, Cloquet. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever, July 28, 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0

The R.W. Lindholm Service Station in Cloquet was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1958, it is the only building concept ever constructed from Wright's utopian vision of a model American community called Broadacre City.

The R.W. Lindholm Service Station in Cloquet was designed by famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He is best known as a proponent for organic architecture. This concept found expression in the Prairie School movement, and the Usonian home. He created a design for a Utopian model community he called Broadacre City, which featured Usonian designs. The gas station was a component of this plan. Construction began in April 1958 and the station opened to the public in October of that year.

Wright placed high importance on the automobile. He saw it as a way to escape the crowded city environment. The Broadacre City design was an attempt to encourage decentralization from urban areas. Transportation was essential to providing the freedom American citizens needed, Wright thought, to live a life in his idea of suburbia. And where cars went, gas stations could not have been too far away.

Ray W. Lindholm was the president of Lindholm Oil, Inc., a distributor of petroleum headquartered in Cloquet. The company owned several gas stations in Minnesota. Wright was first commissioned to design and build the Lindholm residence, called Mantyla, just outside of Cloquet, in 1952. In 1956, Lindholm commissioned Wright again to construct a new service station on the corner of Highway 33 and Cloquet Avenue. Wright refined his Broadacre City service station design and construction of the new building began April 27, 1958. The final cost was $20,000, with some reports stating a higher cost of $75,000.

The building prominently features a cantilevered copper canopy that extends approximately thirty-two feet. It is primarily made of concrete, glass, and steel. Including the thin pylon sign, which once read "Lindholm" in the lower portion, the building rises sixty-two feet high. In the front, the outer cement block walls are stacked, creating a step-effect. Each group of cement blocks is recessed slightly from the ground level upwards. The service station also includes space for community interaction in a glass observation lounge on the second floor. Originally designed to provide an overhead gas supply, traditional gas pumps were used instead to comply with fire codes. Cypress wood, a favorite material of Wright's, is used throughout the interior.

Wright's design influenced the development of gas station architecture in the United States. The majority of car service occurred in the rear of the building. This allowed the front to be a space for dramatic design. Influential features include V-shaped cantilevered canopies, service bays surrounding a central office, and large glass windows. These were all mimicked by Phillips Petroleum Company in later service station designs. The Lindholm Service Station's significance as a Wright structure helped to secure the building a place on the National Register of Historic Places in September in 1985.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography
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Holum, Liz. Lindholm Oil Company Service Station, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 1984. State Historic Preservation Office, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Wright, Frank Lloyd, and Pfeiffer Bruce Brooks, ed. Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings. New York: Rizzoli, 1993.

Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Living City. New York: Horizon Press, 1958.

"Wright-Designed Station To Have Grand Opening." The Pine Knot. October 28, 1958.

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Lindhol Oil Company Service Station, Cloquet
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Frank Lloyd Wright gas station, Cloquet.
Filling station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Cloquet.
Filling station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Cloquet.

Turning Point

Construction of the R.W Lindholm Service Station, from a design by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, begins on April 27, 1958, in Cloquet.

Chronology

1934

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright designs the conceptual Broadacre City, an attempt to change the landscape of the United States by encouraging the decentralization of over-crowded urban areas.

1952

Wright is commissioned to design and build the Ray W. Lindholm family residence, called Mantyla, just outside of Cloquet.

1956

Wright begins to design the service station, refining plans from his earlier Broadacre City design.

1958

Building begins on the Lindholm service station in April. The station opens to the public in October.

1985

Lindholm Service Station is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.