Star Tribune
Minnesota families, Edwin Lundie devotees mourn loss of historic Lutsen Lodge to fire
Skipping stones. A skillet breakfast with the warm morning sun streaming through single-pane windows as it rose above Lake Superior. Fly-fishing in a calm pool along the Poplar River, which spilled into the lake just in front of Lutsen Lodge.
For generations of my family — and countless others who celebrated weddings, enjoyed ski weekends or planned fall leaf-peeping trips — the lodge was beyond memorable. The loss of that historic resort in an early morning fire Tuesday was a gut punch for anyone lucky enough to have made memories there.
“So sad … absolutely crazy,” said one of my nephews after hearing the news, triggering a long-ago memory of watching him and his cousin slide back into one of the Adirondack chairs that always ringed a fire pit on the beach, even in winter.
As the Star Tribune’s real estate reporter for more than a couple decades, it’s literally been my job to appreciate buildings. I’ve lost count of how many photos I have taken of new home construction or stories I’ve written about another hotel development. Yet even when I came to Lutsen Lodge for these family trips, I couldn’t help myself from “working” by admiring the singularly Minnesotan beauty.
In many ways, the lodge was as evocative of the North Shore as the Big Lake itself. And the images of it burning were as disheartening, in some ways, as watching flames destroy part of Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019.
“I’m grieving,” Dale Mulfinger said Tuesday morning.
Mulfinger, a Twin Cities architect and “cabinologist,” wrote extensively about Edwin Lundie, the lowkey but prolific architect who designed the iconic U-shaped lodge —with its striking red color and prominent brick chimney — as well as many other notable houses and cabins. Its loss, Mulfinger said, isn’t just for those who treasure it for the personal memories made there. It’s a loss for those who care about architecture.
The lodge, painted in Lundie’s trademark Mesaba Red, was just one of two Lundie-designed buildings open to the public. Most are private homes in Twin Cities suburbs and cabins scattered along the North Shore.
“We’re talking about a project designed by one of Minnesota’s greatest traditional architects,” Mulfinger said. “It’s a phenomenal legacy of his work.”
Lundie trained under Cass Gilbert and other architectural luminaries of the time. He had a knack for designing buildings that reflected the essence of a place rather than vanities of his own ego.
No doubt, the lodge had a North Shore vibe unlike anything else. With its massive hand-hewn posts and beams carved from centuries-old White Pine and a huge fireplace made from local stone, the building combined the structural heft of a Norwegian Stave Church and the enveloping charm of a classic Adirondack camp.
It wasn’t difficult to appreciate what Mulfinger and so many others so admired about the lodge. Lundie did something rarely done today. He designed virtually every element and nearly every detail inside, from the hinges to the doorknobs to the light fixtures.
“He drew everything,” Mulfinger said. “If his clients would pay him to keep drawing, he’d draw right up until the building was finally built. Even after, he’d given his clients beautiful drawings as Christmas gifts.”
You didn’t have to be a paying guest to experience the building. You could always step inside to step back in time, like a museum or an old-growth forest. Just a couple weeks ago, I marveled — for the umpteenth time ― at the imposing timbers, in awe of their strength. For Lundie, nothing was purely decorative: Everything had a purpose. A function.
For my family and so many others, it symbolized the North Shore.
“There are only a few structures that come to mind when one thinks of the North Shore and that was one of them,” Mulfinger said.
No doubt the resort owners will rebuild. But it is unlikely to ever replicate what so many are now mourning. In fact, on the morning of the fire, someone from the lodge vowed in Facebook post to build it back “better.”
It might be new, but it’ll never be better.
“It’s hard to imagine that it could replace what was there,” Mulfinger said. “It was significant in the whole of the Upper Midwest. We have a great state capital you find in most states, but you don’t find a lot of fantastic old hotels that were beautifully crafted.”
Agreed.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
