Minnesota treasures

About this book

"This book tells the stories of seventy-five of Minnesota's best loved and most interesting buildings, sites, and settings, all drawn from the National Register of Historic Places. Historian and preservationist Denis Gardner, recognizing the spirit behind our treasured places, has written a rich and layered profile of Minnesota's built past. Here readers will find not only the obviously historic, such as the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth or the majestic Paul Watkins House in Winona, but also the remarkably simple and unadorned, like the Pietenpol Workshop and Garage in Cherry Grove and tiny Gran Evangelical Lutheran Church in Popple Township. Gardner also introduces readers to those who inhabited these distinctive spaces, from the ambitious, rivertown merchant with grand plans or the lone, linkering aviator in his garage to the hardworking rural citizens constructing modest dwellings of wood and stone." "These compelling narratives are interwoven with stunning color photographs and archival images depicting a surprising range of Minnesota places - those from before European settlement and from the territorial period to those from Minnesota's agricultural, industrial, technological, commercial, and maritime past. They include public buildings, private homes, and sacred and secular gathering places, all telling the story of the people of Minnesota."--BOOK JACKET.