On entering Odebolt from the east on Iowa 175 one is confronted by the roadside “ruin” of a late 1920s service station. Its steeply pitched roof with a central gable dormer is loosely medieval, though the double-hung windows relate to the Colonial Revival. On the opposite corner is a wonderful row of four corncribs with gable roofs (c. 1915), each with its own venting cupola.
West of Main Street on Second Street is the two-story brick and stone-trimmed Masonic Hall (c. 1889). A large-scaled arched opening announces the entrance to the hall and stairs leading up to the Masonic quarters on the second floor. Countering this entrance to the Masonic Hall is an assertive corner entrance to the ground-floor bank. The other storefronts of the building have been filled in with wood, yet the structure retains much of its original character; however, much of the facade has recently been covered with corrugated metal.
A little farther along on Second Street, in the 500 block, is the domestically scaled American Legion Hall (c. 1910), a single-story building with a garden pergola of projecting beams. The pergola has been enclosed and a wide river-boulder fireplace and chimney has been added.
Finally, at 314 Lincoln Street is a Prairie house reminiscent of George Maher's work. This house was designed for A. C. Petersmeyer in 1917 by the Des Moines firm of Liebbe, Nourse and Rasmussen. The low-pitched hipped roof has been projected out over the brick walls below. The proportions of the house, the balanced symmetry, and the shape of the windows hark back to Frank Lloyd Wright's Winslow house of 1893 in River Forest, Illinois.
Writing Credits
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.