Stay & Play
Historic Park Inn, Mason City, Iowa
by Randy Mink
For history fans and architecture buffs, sleeping in the world’s only remaining hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is a dream come true.
Opened in 1910 and saved from the wrecking ball a century later, the Historic Park Inn in downtown Mason City, Iowa, stands as a tribute to the Prairie School of architecture made famous by Wright, who is generally considered America’s greatest architect.
The building once housed a bank and law office as well as a 43-room hotel called the Park Inn Hotel. Today’s Historic Park Inn, after an extensive restoration project completed in 2011, has 27 guest rooms, plus a restaurant and a basement-level bar with billiard tables. The former banking hall serves as the ballroom.
The landmark’s exterior is vintage Prairie School: a long, low look with wide roof overhangs and horizontal banding created in brick and stone. Original art-glass windows, a signature Wright element, adorn the facade, which overlooks Central Park and its statue of the master builder. Exact reproductions of furniture and lighting fixtures, even the hallway carpeting, mirror Wright designs and motifs.
The best place to soak up the ambience is the Skylight Room, a sitting area with 25 original art-glass panels set below the skylight. Books on Wright are available for guests’ reading pleasure.
Guests find displays of vintage photos and other memorabilia throughout the public areas. Docent-led tours are offered by Wright on the Park (WOTP), the non-profit organization that owns the boutique hotel and is responsible for its ongoing preservation.
Other features original to the building include 14 window grilles, tile flooring in the lobby and Skylight Room, stairway railings and balustrades, and many guest room doors.
To satisfy 21st century travelers, rooms had to be enlarged and outfitted with private baths, as they were tiny and had shared bathrooms. Featuring amenities like smart TVs and heated floors, rooms come in varying sizes, all sporting Wright design touches.
