The Henry Adams Building, located in Algona, Iowa, was designed by Louis Sullivan in 1912. Although it was not designed as a bank, and has never served as such, the building is nonetheless considered to be one of Sullivan's "Jewel Boxes," a series of banks designed and built in the Midwest between 1909 and 1919. As in the other "Jewel Boxes," Sullivan included many windows, both on the street side and in the skylight that allowed a great deal of natural light inside. The simple massing of this small, rectangular building with its clearly defined structure makes it typical of Sullivan's later work. The same massing, and similar detailing, particularly the entrance had been used by Sullivan's former associates Purcell & Elmslie in their slightly larger Exchange State Bank in Grand Meadow, Minnesota in 1910 and it is possible that this design influenced Sullivan. (Brooks) Sullivan was assisted in the design by his draftsman, Parker Berry, who drew the perspectives. It is believed that the planter that formed part of the entrance [see gallery] has been removed by Tom Monaghan and is now located in the Domino's Pizza World Headquarters building in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Kvaran)
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Sources
- Brooks, H. Allen, The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Contemporaries, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, 1972
- Elia, Mario Manieri, Louis Henry Sullivan, Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton NY, 1996
- Gebhard, David & Gerald Mansheim, Building of Iowa, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, The Louis Sullivan Pilgrimage, unpublished manuscript
- Twombly, Robert, Louis Sullivan: His Life and Work, Elizabeth Sifton Books - Viking, New York, 1986
- Wilson, Richard Guy and Sidney K. Robinson, The Prairie School in Iowa, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1977
