A type of architecture that has caught my eye is Prairie School Architecture (PSA). Prairie School Architecture was very popular from 1900 till the First World War, but peaking in the year 1914 (Brooks, 3). PSA is classified as part of the arts and crafts movement, not to be associated with a style. The movement is an attitude, an answer to a problem, which pleaded for simplicity, exclusion, and admiration for materials. PSA was the different design in the community. It expressed individuality and creativity in the owners and builders (Brooks, 16-17). The movement centered in the Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin), with a focus on suburban Chicago (Brooks, 3). PSA was very much simplistic, yet very interesting.

The most significant years of PSA, 1912-1914, were made memorable by the quality, quantity, and variety of the work produced. There were approximately 15 architects practicing PSA, some of which included: Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan, and Maher. These architects went to a school that was called “The Studio,” which was connected to Wrights home (Brooks, 200). Wright and his Midwest contemporaries used such materials as brick, wood, plaster, stucco, and stone in their constructions. In the earlier years of the PSA movement the appearance of the buildings were viewed with “low rectangular shapes, which were asymmetrically placed together, sometimes with forward projecting wings, laterally extending porches, and an entrance opening. Gradually over time the design modified toward a more symmetrical, formal, and compact outlook while still maintaining its individual character.” This movement was incorporated into churches, banks, frats, homes, and other buildings, making PSA a very universal movement (Brooks, 6).

Most people believe that the only constructions possessing the PSA designs are houses. This is not true. With a careful look around any town, a person is bound to find many community and government buildings falling into the same architectural movement. Many were made of brick or stone, like that of the pictured Merchant’s Bank of Winona. With the same square, 90-degree angle design, the only thing that differed from the houses was the large overhanging roof. These commercial buildings were constructed in the early 1900s and some even in the late 1800s. Today they still stand as strong as they did when they were built. The PSA design was that of a secure and long lasting one. Many buildings have required little or no structural work (Brooks, 48).

During this time period the movement was going through decentralization. With the main focus occurring in Chicago for many years, it was gradually shifting to the rural area in the rest of the Midwest. The focus tended to grow in towns with an Indian name or a town with an importance of water. One of the largest establishments of PSA was right here in Minnesota, in the town of Winona. A one-time mill and lumbering town, was then growing into an agricultural and manufacturing community. Located on the Mississippi River and connected to the outside by railroad, Winona was a prime place for the PSA movement to reestablish (Brooks, 200-201). This was the start of a widespread movement west.

Just when the PSA movement was beginning to take off, it ended up taking an abrupt drop. Why the PSA ended, and why it ended so quickly baffled the historians for sometime. Yet architects, clients, critics and novelists all left behind the same argument: “the Midwesterner increasingly rejected individuality in favor of conformity, that the client, rather than the architect, stipulated the change and that the housewife, sooner and more readily than her husband, renounced the work of the Prairie School” (Brooks, 336). In other words, PSA was a very individualistic movement and the continuous pressure of conformity was too much for it to handle. Also before women established any sort of power in the marriage, they were much more sympathetic towards the work than after the war when they gained more equality. After 1914, the accumulation of all these events were too much for the Prairie School to resist and it fell to where it is today (Brooks, 339).

Mankato and Prairie School Architecture both have a very interesting history. The walking tour showed me many of the funky places Mankato has to offer. After studying PSA, I understand much more about architecture and the architecture that exists in Mankato. I just wish every town offered a tour and the entertainment that Mankato has in its community.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972.

Von Holst, Hermann Valentin. Country and Suburban Homes: The Prairie School Period. New

York: Dover Publications Inc., 1985.

PICTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chicago Junior School Dining Hall. <http://www.prairiestyle.com/vanburgen_com.htm#netzel>

Merchant’s Bank of Winona. <http://www.prairiectyles.com/purcell_com.htm#c_gray>