The Historic Park Inn Hotel

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Mason City, IA

The historic Park Inn Hotel is the last of six hotels that were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Its construction began in 1909, after two local attorneys, J.E.E. Markley and James E. Blythe, hired Wright to design a building to hold their law offices, a bank, shops, and a hotel in the heart of Mason City, IA.  Wright answered the call with a unique three-part design, with the bank and hotel linked by a heavily projecting roof slab.

Wright took off for Europe with Mamah Borthwick before it was finished. His associate William Drummond completed the building from Wright’s plans, and it was finished in 1910. Visitors loved the hotel, but it struggled, and by the 1920s, it was carved up into cheap apartments. Decades of neglect followed, and the building nearly met the wrecking ball.

A nonprofit called Wright on the Park rescued and restored it. The hotel reopened in 2011 and later recovered its original details, including the stained glass skylight that once sat behind the front desk. A local homeowner even returned art glass panels he had discovered in his own sunroom.

Today, the hotel offers 27 rooms, each with its own layout. You can see Wright’s signature touches throughout, including leaded-glass light screens, cantilevered roof lines, recessed balconies, and his compression and release concept that pulls visitors through the space. The building sits on the National Register of Historic Places.

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