Frank Lloyd Wright’s last surviving hotel, the Park Inn and its adjoining former City National Bank building, have been immaculately restored in Mason City, Iowa, and I had the opportunity to see and stay overnight at this amazing landmark in early July.

Located at the southwest corner of West State Street and South Federal Street, the latter of which is now a pedestrian mall, the landmark avoided demolition in the early Twentieth Century.

Built in 1909, the James Blythe and J.E.E. Markley, the leaders of the City National Bank, came up with the idea of constructing a new bank building along with a small hotel attached to it at the center of Mason City.

It is a classic example of the Prairie School pioneered by Wright, and his architect assistant William Drummond helped execute the design when his employer left town for other exploits.

The hotel only has 37 rooms today, and it always suffered from being small, despite being designed by such a famous architect; the construction of a giant new hotel only a few years later did not help!

This portion below is the main hotel part of the design.

Classic elements of the Prairie style, such as the light fixtures, are all in place.

It’s beautiful at night, as well.

No detail was spared on the interior.

In classic Wright design, to get to the front desk you better be below 6’2″ in height or you will bump your head!

Mason City does an amazing job of hyping its Wright tourism links, something that St. Louis could learn a lot from. Everywhere in every direction from the hotel visitors are reminded that a famous landmark is only a block or two away. Do we see that with our own world-famous buildings in downtown? Can you even name the world famous skyscraper designed by Wright’s mentor in downtown St. Louis? I’m sure more Mason City residents can give you directions to their most important tourist attraction. Why is there no statue of that famous architect in the park across the street from that famous building in St. Louis? It’s called spending money to make money.