Mason City, IA - A little bit of FLR

[kcexpress69]

Ames, IA...getting warmed up


Moving on to my next destination, I reached Mason City later on in the afternoon. The city once had a little over
30,000 people back in the 60s, but has since dropped to just over 28,000. That said, the downtown, while maybe
not quite as rehabbed as Ames, had a pretty decent building stock for a city its size. FLR..or Frank Lloyd Wright,
designed a building for downtown, and a nearby house. Once again, as pretty much my whole trip, time wasn't
on my side, so I had to keep it downtown.

Naturally, when I started off, I was inside a downtown shopping mall. Completely out of place, it sort of
swallowed up a couple of old buildings, with out tearing them down. The mall was about half empty, but well maintained.


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The City National Bank here on the right, was one of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings


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Another shot. The building attached to it is a hotel also designed by FLR


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A lady I talked to claimed that this bench was also a FLR design.


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City hall


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A few pieces of artwork in the downtown area


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An old residential tower downtown, might have been a hotel at one time


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from the back


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The courthouse


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A newer highrise


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A war memorial on the square


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An octagon shaped building with the city hall in the background


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Let's do this!!!


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A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright


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One last parting shot of downtown before leaving. Hope you all enjoyed the thread!!


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[LMich]

The first thing that jumps out at me is the unusual street lighting, and the strange mall. It's all kind of interesting.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Enjoyable tour kc. I wish I had stopped by during my Iowa adventure, but the weather just wasn't cooperating. Who knows, maybe I'll make it out that way again some time. Thanks for the tour.

btw, good catch on the street lighting LMich. That is rather odd.

[Thundertubs]

Some pretty nice buildings there.

I know it's sacrilege, but I never really liked Frank Lloyd. Too fussy.

[Wheelingman04]

Neat!

[kcexpress69]

Originally Posted by Thundertubs

Some pretty nice buildings there.

I know it's sacrilege, but I never really liked Frank Lloyd. Too fussy.

He had some interesting designs for buildings that seemed ahead of their time, but I don't know much about the man himself. Thanks for the comments so far!!

[The ATX]

I bought gas there once.

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures. I've actually always wondered what Mason City looked like. I heard about it almost 15 years ago when I watched some TV special about a Mason City anchorwoman disappearing, and I ended up looking the place up to see where it was.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Cute little Midwestern city...