Fans save Wright building
Group to restore architect’s only existing hotel structure
DES MOINES, Iowa – Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts are claiming victory in their effort to restore the architect’s last standing hotel, a northern Iowa landmark that has fallen apart over the past few decades.
The Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, designed by Wright and completed in 1910, has been used as a hotel, apartments and even a strip club. It fell further into neglect while city officials searched unsuccessfully for a way to maintain the historic structure. Now, a private group has taken over the effort.
“It certainly has been an eyesore, it has had a very, very checkered history over the past 40 to 50 years,” said Ann MacGregor, executive director of Wright on the Park Inc., the group behind a planned $18 million restoration.
The hotel is the last remaining of six designed by Wright after the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was demolished in 1968. The Park Inn Hotel will have 20 suites when it reopens to the public in early 2011, MacGregor said.
The restoration has caused discord in the city that was home to “The Music Man” creator Meredith Willson. His boyhood home has been made into a museum, and there’s a life-size replica of “The Music Man” movie set in downtown Mason City.
Some wonder why the hotel designed by Wright, considered by many to be America’s greatest architect, hasn’t had the same support.
“There are naysayers for this project … who don’t appreciate or understand the architectural, historical nature of this property,” MacGregor said. “They question what it will do for downtown Mason City.”
The hotel made national headlines in 2004 when the City Council put an ad on eBay to sell it for $10 million to anyone who promised to restore it. When that failed, Wright on the Park stepped in, and the city signed over the deed.
“It wasn’t that they didn’t want (the restoration) done,” Marinos said, “it was just they didn’t want the city to do it.”
Wright enthusiasts have been in a race for funding. The state of Iowa came through with about $8.2 million through its Vision Iowa program, and various federal and state historic grants and donations will pay for much of the work. There’s only about $2 million left to be raised.
Alaina Santizo, the program manager for Vision Iowa, said state officials believe the project will draw tourists from across the country.
“This historic gem will be restored to its original splendor, while providing modern amenities that will appeal to today’s travelers,” she said in a statement.
Born in Richland Center, Wis., Wright was part of the Prairie School, a residential architectural movement that started in Chicago and spread through the Midwest. He came to Mason City in 1908 after two local attorneys hired him to build new law offices and sandwich them between a hotel and a bank for added revenue. Wright also built a private residence in Mason City called the Stockman House that’s now a museum.