Page 8 - RAGBRAI2010

CLEAR LAKE TO CHARLES
CITY

PRAIRIE MODERN Just off the route
is Mason City,
ARCHITECTURE which is unique
for its high quality
Prairie Modern or Prairie School Architecture is Prairie Modern architecture
thoroughly imbrued with the spirit of the prairie and and extensive Prairie Modern plan-
was founded very directly on the climate, landforms, ning. It has the highest concentration of great
and lifestyle of the region. The buildings are abstrac- Prairie School architecture in Iowa and is definitely
tions of Midwestern landforms and nature. They are worth a visit. Down the road, Charles City has the
part of the landscape but still apart. Blake, Dodd, and Lindman houses, and along the Ce-
dar River is the Usonian style Miller house by Frank
Sullivan, Wright, Griffin, and Drummond were Lloyd Wright, made of stone, plaster, and cypress. In
internationally famous architects who worked in Quasqueton, on the Wapsipinicon River, is another
Iowa and advanced the Prairie School form. There notable Wright-designed county home, the Walter
were two phases of Prairie School in Iowa. The first
was Chicago-oriented and ran from 1900 to 1930. House and river pavilion, which can
The second lasted from 1930 to the present and in- be toured. In Dubuque, on a bluff
corporated more modernist ideas, with overlooking the Mississippi River,
Wright’s Usonian houses setting the are the significant CCC-built Eagle
tenor through the 1970s. Aspects of the Point Park Shelters both express-
ing the Prairie Modern idiom at its
finest and providing a spectacular
view.

- Marlin Ingalls, Architectural
Historian for the OSA

The Adams buildling, Algona

style include local stonework and stucco, overhanging
eaves, piers and supports, and a rectilinear treatment
of the mass and details.

Starting with Sioux City there are classic exam-
ples of the Prairie School in every overnight town and
several pass-through towns along the route. Sioux
City has a large concentration of Prairie Modern
houses as well as commercial and public buildings,
including the Woodbury County courthouse, a must-
see. The Adams building in downtown Algona is a
small, understated jewel. In Clear Lake, the Stillman
house and others stand out in the tree-lined streets.