Driving to La Crosse

The rolling hills of Iowa

We left Mason City and joined Highway18 at Rudd.  As we drove through the little towns, we kept remarking how pristine and well kept these towns were.  Even the trailer home parks were kept incredibly neat!

 No furniture on the front porches like in some of the states we have driven through.  No garbage or appliances on the front lawns.   Beautiful farms and lush crops.

 

 "Palm" trees in Iowa?? 

 
Any idea what this is??  This was close to New Hampton, where we picked up highway 24 and headed to Decorah.

 

Not a good picture, but gives you an idea that we were driving along some kind of ridge overlooking the valley.  You could see for a long way! 

 Driving into Lansing, Iowa on the Mississippi river.

 We got out to stretch for a little.

At Lansing, Al crossed the bridge. 

We decided we wanted to go north on the Iowa side this time, so we crossed over the bridge again and went north on 26.  We stopped at a lookout.

 We walked across the railroad tracks that follow between the river and the road.

Wisconsin is on the other side.  A cormorant in the river. 

 I captured some kind of ladder backed woodpecker in the photo.

 

 Little river boat houses.  I suppose fishermen live here over the weekends or for vacation?  Or perhaps full-time. 

 Crossing the Mississippi into La Crosse.

We checked into our hotel and freshened up for a river boat cruise!

Mason City, tour of homes

Before checking out of the hotel to leave for La Crosse, we picked up a pamphlet that told about some of the homes in the city. 

I like these!  The Kirk apartments!  Built in 1896, the building went through a seven year preservation and was placed on the National Register of Historical Places.  This was the city's first luxury apartment building. Horace P Kirk, who owned and managed the building, was a Mason City businessman, photographer, and civic leader.

Frank Lloyd Wright had several architects who studied under him and had influence on some of the  homes in Mason City.

Harry D. Page House, 1912

The first Prairie school house built by Griffin, who was once employed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Arthur Rule House, 2nd house built by Griffin, 1912-1913
You can see the Prairie School design.

The James Blythe House, 1913-1914

A concrete house in the Prairie School design.  The 3rd house designed by Griffin.  Its basement, floors, stairs and roof are of poured reinforced concrete.

George Romey House, 1920

Romey was a realtor.

The Markley's purchased this pillared home.  It had been built in 1901.   J. E. E. Markley was an attorney in the firm of Blythe, Markley, Rule and Smith and a prominent citizen in Mason City in the early 20th century.  He was responsible for the selection of Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect for the Park Inn Hotel Building (where we stayed, now renamed Historic Park Inn Hotel.)  Besides serving as a bank and hotel, the building complex provided offices for their firm.

Beside this home is the Willow Creek Footbridge

The footbridge has been a part of Mason City history for more than 100 years.  Meredith Willson immortalized the footbridge in his 1957 musical about Mason City,  “The Music Man”.

I have never seen this Broadway musical.  Had I even heard of it?  Not sure.

Anyway, Meredith Willson is from Mason City, Iowa.

Here is his boyhood home.   You can go on a tour of it, if you'd like.

The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Harold is no musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love. Harold risks being caught to win her.

In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances.

We'll have to watch the movie sometime.

I LOVE this English tudor style house!  Mr. Willard Temple built this home in 1929.  He was the owner of the Central Show Printing, the Mason City company that printed billboards for Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey and other circuses.

Tom MacNider House, 1959

Designed by Besinger who was on the architecture Faculty of the University of Kansas in Lawrence!  Go Hawks!  MacNider was at the time vice-president of the Northwestern States Portland Cement Company.

 This river is in the back yard of several of the homes in the area.  Nice!

The Stockman house  

The only Frank Lloyd house built in Mason City.   Dr. and Mrs. Stockman met Frank Lloyd Wright on one of Wright's visits to Mason City during the planning of the hotel and bank.  "For them Wright designed his most elaborate house to date based on the open floor plan described in an article in his 1907 Ladies Home Journal article 'A Fireproof House for $5,000.'"

It is open for tours but we had to leave the town by 9am and it didn't open until 10.

 This city would be worth visiting again!  On to LaCrosse....