Over the weekend Ellen and I were in St. Cloud. As we walked around downtown St. Cloud it was enjoyable to see th amount of granite used in their buildings. St. Cloud is known as ‘Granite City’ due to the amount of granite mined in the area. I read that at one time there were 19 very active quarries nearby. Cold Spring Granite remains one of the nations largest stone quarry. Some of the buildings were constructed of brick with stone accents. Others were constructed using shapped granite for the entire street face.
We came across the Federal Building which must have been constructed in the 1930’s as it had a distinctive Art Deco style. It is an imposing building and does not give off a lot of ‘warmth’ like many of the smaller buildings in the downtown do. I also liked the Stearns County Courthouse with its dome prominently noted at the top.
As we walked around the courthouse I noticed there were some sayings in the stone over the entrances. As a former lawmaker I especially liked this one that reads “Where Law Ends Tyranny Begins”