Don's Travels: Minneapolis to Madison - and another Prairie School Bank

by Jane

[Monday, 24th September] We did about 250-ish miles today, along the motorways out of Minneapolis:

Bridges over the Mississippi in Minneapolis

(I'm getting some complaints about the previous photo as the bridge at the back is on a slant in real life. Gary thinks it was good of me to straighten it out with my photo-taking.)

Random field shot

Dad had chosen the route to take us along the Mississippi River and Lake Piner to Winona. At Winona we were going to visit another Prairie School bank but first a stop at the information centre. What a lovely setting the whole town is in, and especially the visitor centre.

Outside the visitor centre at Winona

Dad and Gary going into the visitor centre

Is the preceding photo blog-worthy? Why, yes, it is. Dad and Gary were heading into the visitor centre to ask for directions!

So, on to the Merchants Bank of Winona. This one is still operating as a bank, in fact the same bank as it was back in 1912 when the 'new' bank was built for them.

Is a caption really required?

The entrance

Detail of the entrance

I must say at this point that in all three of the Prairie School buildings they have been happy for us to take photos, gone out of their way to duck and dive out of our photos, and always had a pamphlet to hand out.

A Prairie School traveller

And from the pamphlet for this bank:

In the early 1900's, American architecture produced what is known today as, "The Prairie School of Architecture." A leader in this style was the Minneapolis firm of Purcell, Feick and Elmslie. William G. Purcell and George G. Elmslie had been closely associated with Louis Sullivan, the architect responsible for more than 200 building designs between 1891 and 1919. All were contemporaries of the famous Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Merchants Bank building is the largest and most famous example of their unique, progressive contribution to early 20th century architecture, and to the development of the distinctive community bank.

Outside detail

The bank has been through a few 'improvements' over the years (like covering the huge stained-glass skylight so they would have a ceiling to suspend light fixtures from) but most of those have been removed during restoration and extension. One of the great features of this bank was that removing a wall and expanding the bank into the space has allowed us our first chance to stand back and look at the whole interior of one of these buildings. The extension is very much in keeping with the original style.

This bank is far less ornate than the Louis Sullivan buildings, moving towards the clean lines of Purcell and Elmslie residential buildings.

Inside overview

Stained-glass (on two walls)

The stained-glass decoration ... Super!

Detail of stained-glass pattern

Another great site for Prairie School buildings (and more) is Unified Vision.

Just to complete the novel - as Dad has suggested it must be since I have been writing this while he's enjoyed a beer ... and half a bottle of wine in his and Gary's after-travel routine - we finished up at the bank and went to the Acoustic Cafe in Winona for lunch.