ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For more than twenty years, I have taught a university course on the history of modern-era design. Like this account of Mason City architecture, the lectures in that course begin around 1850 and progress toward the present time. The ideas in this book took shape over the years as I was preparing those lectures.

This project required a number of trips to Mason City, about two hours from our farm. My wonderful wife, Mary Synder Behrens, was unwaveringly supportive, as she invariably has been throughout our years of married life.

I also gained considerably from conversations about Frank Lloyd Wright, the Griffins and Prairie School architecture with Robert E. McCoy (an authority on Rock Crest/Rock Glen and owner of the Blythe House) and Peggy Bang (owner of the Melson House), as well as informal exchanges with Iowa friends and Prairie School enthusiasts, among them Geraldine Schwarz (a Mason City native), Paul and Anita Whitson, Rick Knivsland (of the Friends of Cedar Rock) and Richard H. Behrens.

As I searched for photographs, Mary Markwalter (director of the Mason City Public Library) and Terry Harrison (its historian and archivist) were especially helpful. I was also enormously pleased when historian Ann Elias agreed to contribute a foreword, which is an especially suitable way to underscore the link between Mason City and Sydney, Australia. I am also indebted to the editors at The History Press for suggesting that I take this on and for all their diligent work in enabling it to become a reality.