Northern Pacific Depot, Little Falls

In 1899, three years after he designed the Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul architect Cass Gilbert designed a one-story, late Queen Anne, Shingle-style depot to serve as a major rail stop in the burgeoning lumber town of Little Falls. The depot is one of his last works built in Minnesota. Gilbert went on to design such architectural monuments as New York’s Woolworth Building, the U.S. Supreme Court, and state capitols in West Virginia and Arkansas. Although the depot today serves as offices for the Little Falls Chamber of Commerce, its future was not always certain. A community “Save the Depot” effort was spearheaded by local philanthropist Laura Jane Musser in 1981.