At the southwest corner of Main and Upper streets is the building that housed the First State Bank (1915), now a retail store. While most of the warm-tan terracotta displays classical motifs, the design of this small building (almost domestic in size) is not classical in feeling. The design focuses on vertical rectangles and on gabled and projecting piered parapets. Narrow bands of terracotta surround the large front and side windows and the corner entrance cut into the building; in some cases the bands simply create rectangular panels within the brick walls. The two front ends of the building are treated almost as pavilions surmounted by gabled pediments and piers. Since the building is completely free standing, all four walls are formally treated.
Two miles east of Arlington, on the north side of the gravel road that leaves the southeast corner of town, is a 12-sided barn centering on a tall silo composed of terracotta blocks. The wood-framed and wood-sheathed barn was built in 1906. The barn itself has a diameter of 60 feet, with the silo measuring 14 feet in diameter. Soike speculates that the current silo may have replaced an earlier one. 1There are only three known examples of this barn type within the state of Iowa.
Notes
Lowell J. Soike, Without Right Angles: The Round Barns of Iowa, 79.
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