Random Notes - A Blog

5 May 2006
The PST has been gifted with a large collection of photographs by Jack Lesshafft, a fellow Traveler. Most are images of Wright buildings, though there are also images of Mahoney’s Amberg and Mueller houses and the work of some other, lesser-known architects in Indianapolis. It’s a tremendous resource that I will be incorporating in the next weeks.

3 May 2006
Architect Randolph C. Henning sends yet another intriguing postcard, this one showing a Masonic Temple in Grinnell, Iowa, home of perhaps the second most famous Sullivan bank.

This building shows how clueless stylistically eclectic architects could be when adopting the outward dress. Like so many non-residential Prairie-esque buildings, the model is the Larkin Building. Here we see Wright’s pilasters, complete with globes and brick-band capitals, and the monolithic stairtowers, here used to widen the facade. An inquiry to the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce brought a cheerful reply from Cindy Rose, who tells us that the building still stands, and that it was designed by Des Moines architect Frank Wetherell in 1917.