SPECIAL STAYS

BY RACHEL CRICK

NOTHING LETS ATTENDEES LIVE LARGE LIKE A STAY IN A HISTORIC, LUXURY HOTEL, and Iowa has plenty to choose from. Iowans’ pride in their past shows in their tendency to preserve handsome old hotels or turn historic buildings into accommodations. From a downtown hotel designed by one of this country’s best-known architects to the recent and imaginative reworking of a mill in the Amana Colonies, these historic hotels wow with history, elegance and world-class amenities.

Historic Park Inn Hotel Mason City

An icon of American architecture was the mastermind behind the Historic Park Inn Hotel in northern Iowa’s Mason City.

“It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; construction was completed in 1910; and at the time it was built as a business and travel hotel,” said Lindsey James, executive director of the Mason City Convention and Visitors Bureau. “There’s nothing like it.”

Architecture enthusiasts, especially fans of Wright’s work, will delight in this example of the famed architect’s Prairie Style. It’s the only hotel designed by Wright still in existence, and it underwent a $20 million restoration in 2011 to preserve signature stylistic elements, like its stained