[ Mid-tempo music plays ] How did a town in northern Iowa become a Midwestern architectural mecca?

It began in the early 1900s, when the pioneering Prairie School architect Frank Lloyd Wright brought his distinct building style to Iowa.

Years before creating some of his most famous works, such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, Wright was brought to Mason City to design a bank, law office, and hotel in the city square.

He is internationally recognized as one of the best American architects of the 20th century.

You don't have to live in Chicago to have a Wright building.

You can live in Mason City and see Wright buildings and experience his architecture.

And Iowa has, I think, eight or nine Wright structures around the state.

That's kind of exciting.

Kohlsdorf: In 1908, the Wright-designed Stockman House was built for Dr. George and Eleanor Stockman.

It tells us a lot about the early founders of our city.

Not only did they want to have structures, you know, environments to live in, but they wanted them to be beautiful.

They wanted them to say something about our community.

Kohlsdorf: The Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank was completed and opened to guests in 1910.

After years of disrepair and changes in ownership, the Park Inn was restored to its original design and now stands as the only hotel in operation designed by the iconic American architect.

[ Music continues ] While Wright's name may be familiar to road trippers, lesser-known designers followed him to Mason City to carry the torch of the Prairie School style in the first half of the 20th century.

Architects Walter Burley Griffin, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Barry Byrne contributed to what is now known as the Rock Crest-Rock Glen Historic District.

Centered around Mason City's Willow Creek, it is the largest collection of Prairie School-style homes in a single neighborhood, making it the perfect place to pull off the highway and take a look around.

Because it's around the creek, nature is encouraged to thrive here.

[ Music continues ] And it's amazing.

100 years later, it's still that way.

So people have respected that idea.

And it's visionary.

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