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Wright in Racine
Mason City update
Posted by:
mhertzberg on
July 16, 2008 at
2:30PM CST
Text and photos (c) Mark Hertzberg
Ann MacGregor and Bob McCoy hold a model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank building in Mason City, Iowa, in the lobby of the hotel building. The model was made by a local student. $4.3 million in private funds would have to be raised, as a condition of the Vision Iowa grant. $7,500,000 of the grant would be for the hotel/bank building, $1 million for the Mason City Public Library, $250,000 for a performing arts pavilion in East Park, and $250,000 for the architectural interpretive center. This visitor's center would be near Wright's Stockman House, adjacent to the Rock Glen neighborhood. I had the opportunity to speak in Mason City again, in May. The Mason City Globe-Gazette has supported the quest to secure the Vision Iowa grant, and quoted my remarks supporting the project, in advance of my talk. I had the pleasure of staying with Bob and Bonnie McCoy again, -in their Walter Burley Griffin-designed home. Dr. McCoy gave me an extensive tour of the hotel and bank buildings. A variety of slide shows of the buildings, as well as of the Stockman House, follow.
The hotel lobby:
The hotel was doomed when the Hotel Hanford, with 250 rooms, all with private bathrooms, opened in 1922. That building is now a residential apartment building. Dr. McCoy notes "In one fell blow it made the Park Inn with its 100 square foot rooms and shared baths belong to a bygone generation." 
There is much work to be done upstairs in the next two years, but project organizers are not daunted. After all, they have made great progress in recent years. The basement will also be redone.
The law offices of James Blythe, who commissioned the building, were above the bank. Wright on the Park acquired the City National Bank building when the clothing store occupying the ground floor moved across the street. The second floor will be removed during renovation, and the lobby will be open again.
 Bob McCoy is keen to photograph the hotel and bank building at any opportunity. Here, he takes advantage of early morning light. The Vision Iowa grant would also fund a visitors center next to Wright's Stockman House (1908). Photos of the Stockman House follow:
Links: Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank: http://www.wrightonthepark.org/
Stockman House: http://www.stockmanhouse.org/
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