STOCKMAN HOUSE IN MASON CITY IOWA

Currently in Clear Lake IA (Low 64 Some Sun, A Thunderstorm in Spots Currently 69) 
Heading to Waukee IA (Currently 73 A Shower or Thunderstorm in Spots High 81)

Mason City Iowa is just a few miles from Clear Lake on the other side of of I-35. We did not know that it was ranked as the 14th best city for architecture sightseeing. Frank Lloyd Wright is a big reason for that. It started in the early 1900s when FLW was in Mason City designing the Park Inn Hotel. Dr. George and Eleanor Stockman met FLW while he was in town and asked him to design a house for them, what is now known as the 1908 Stockman House.

They wanted the $5,000 Fire Proof House that was featured in a Ladies Home Journal article. Here is a model of the fire proof house.

Here is a model of the final product, slightly different than the fire proof house.

Here is a picture from the visitors center showing the house and some of the interior. You could not take pictures during the tour inside the house.

The 'theme' of this house according to the tour guide was symmetry. Here is the front of the house, notice the windows, how the centerline of the windows is at the centerline of that side.

The back of the house shows the same symmetry.

One neat thing is that there were no exterior gutters. Here is how the rain gutters were setup.

We heard a couple of things from the tour guide or from the movie at the visitors center that made us glad we took the tour. The Stockman House is the only prairie style house that you can tour in Iowa and it is the only middle class prairie style house that you can tour in the entire United States. All of this in Mason City Iowa, pretty cool.

We leave today for Waukee Iowa for more friends and family.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo