Where in the world is the only remaining Frank Lloyd Wright designed hotel? If you guess the Park Inn and City National Bank in Mason City, IA, then you move to the head of the class. Several years ago, Gary and I visited Mason City and saw the hotel while it was being restored. We saw the broken windows, the bird nests and the crumbling bricks on the outside. Today we saw the restoration done. What a beautiful hotel. Now, it is not open for business but also for tours. You can rent a room there. And, what a marvelous place to stay surrounded by Wright-designed furniture, stained glass, interiors and exteriors.
On the left of the light was the City Bank, on the left is the park Inn and in the middle was a legal office. Note how massive the bank side is - to look like a strong box and make you want to invest in this bank and put your money there.
The hotel was built in 1909 to serve three purposes: as a hotel, a bank and a law office. Even though Wright had moved to Europe after he had designed it, one of his associates finished it exactly as Wright had designed it, maintaining his Prairie School look: long and low with wide roof overhangs, large central fireplaces, ribbon windows and horizontal banding.
It was very successful at first. However, with economic and banking downturns in the 1920’s, the hotel was re-designed to allow for more retail. Here it is in 1926. Oof-da. What a change. This is obviously a Wrong design.
With the Great Depression following the economic downturn, the hotel steadily declined until it could barely hold its own. Parts of the building were sold off, later it was turned into apartments but finally pigeons and cobwebs took over. Finally in 2005, a local group, called Wright on the Park (WOTP) , first worked to get the building on the National Register of Historic Places, raised money, began restoring it and finally opened it to the public in 2011.
Here is the room behind the reception desk, originally designed to be a restaurant but now serving as a lobby for the hotel guests.
The floor tiles are original along with the stained glass in the ceiling.
Interesting story behind the stained glass. When parts of the building were sold off, these windows were installed in an attic over a sunroom in a private home in the area. When the bank section was being restored, they found some stained glass panes that had been in the ceiling of the directors’ room. When Dr. Robert McCoy, a WOPT board member, saw these, he realized that the ceiling glass in the home he had bought was closely related and, sure enough, these 25 windows were the original 25 Wright windows from the restaurant.
Following this, many other original pieces which had been sold off have now been donated to the hotel. Many have not, the new owners preferring to keep them. However the WOTP has made many copies of the original pieces and these now grace the rooms. The Mason City Library actually has a Mercury statue from the original bank. It lent the statue to WOTP to copy they made 4 copies, the original number and now there are 4 in the bank area.
Here’s a picture showing how Wright made his buildings look longer and lower than they might have been. He left the vertical mortar almost flush with the bricks and indented the horizontal mortar. Secondly, as you can see in the picture above, he used long, flat bricks for the wall.
What is original in the building now?
the 25 art glass panels in the ceiling in the skylight area
the majority of the tile floor in the hotel lobby and skylight room
stairway rails although layers and layers of paint had to be stripped off
the exterior brickwork and art glass windows across the front of the hotel
exterior urns
and many other items.
What a beautiful hotel and what a great restoration of a Wright masterpiece. Our next stop is at the Stockman home, another Wright design. You can’t go wrong touring Wright. And, by the way, there is another Wright home in the area, Cedar Rock in Quasqueton, IA just south of rte 30. We saw this in 2008.
We’ve seen Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ but plan to visit the other Wright homes in the Phoenix area this winter in amidst our hiking.
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