You are here

Band Shell

-A A +A
c. 1936. Olsen Park, south end of 17th St.

Moderne-style bandstands of this type were built in a number of communities in Iowa during the depression years of the 1930s. One inspiration was certainly the nationally publicized Hollywood Bowl in California. Another, perhaps unconscious source was the image of radio speakers, which in the late 1920s and early 1930s were often separated from their receivers. The Fort Dodge bandstand exhibits metal gates at each side of the podium; in their exaggerated, twisted form the gates seem to be of hemp rope rather than iron.

Writing Credits

Author: 
David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim, "Band Shell", [Fort Dodge, Iowa], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IA-01-NO150.

Print Source

Buildings of Iowa, David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 392-392.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,