Henry Adams Building

Land and Loan Office Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Street view of the building
Location	123 E. State St. Algona, Iowa
Coordinates	43°4′8″N 94°14′8″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1913
Architect	Louis H. Sullivan
Architectural style	Late 19th And Early 20th Century American Movements
NRHP reference No.	98000250
Added to NRHP	March 19, 1998

The Henry Adams Building, also known as the Land and Loan Office Building, is a historic building in Algona, Iowa, United States. It 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 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 was typical of Sullivan's later work. The same massing and similar detailing, particularly the entrance, was 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.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, under the name of "Land and Loan Office Building." It is currently occupied by the Algona Chamber of Commerce.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Other Louis Sullivan "jewel boxes"

• Farmers and Merchants Bank, Columbus, Wisconsin (1919)
• Home Building Association Company, Newark, Ohio (1914)
• Merchants' National Bank, Grinnell, Iowa (1914)
• National Farmer's Bank, Owatonna, Minnesota (1908)
• People's Federal Savings and Loan Association, Sidney, Ohio (1918)
• Peoples Savings Bank, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1912)
• Purdue State Bank, West Lafayette, Indiana (1914)

Further reading

• 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
• 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