Photos and text © Mark Hertzberg (2024)
Ann MacGregor one of Mason City, Iowa’s heroes in helping save Frank Lloyd Wright’s last surviving hotel, the Park Inn, and the adjacent City National Bank, died peacefully October 2, it was announced today.
The hotel and bank buildings, which opened in 1910, had deteriorated so badly that the city had put them up for sale on eBay in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Mason City rallied to save the buildings. Ann served as Executive Director of the newly formed Wright on the Park. Today the Historic Park Inn Hotel is a popular boutique hotel for visitors to Mason City, whether or not they are there on a Wright pilgrimage.
Ann was a genial, giving person. Her obituary outlines her life of service, including as a nurse on the medical ship SS HOPE and as a public health nurse for the Migrant Action Program in the late 1960s in Mason City.
https://www.bratleyfamilyfuneralhomes.com/obituary/ann-macgregor
In 2013 she published a book about her six years service around the world on the HOPE, beginning in 1958 [it is no longer in print]:
I met Ann in May 2005 when the late Bob (Dr. Robert) McCoy, another one of Mason City’s heroes in saving the hotel and bank building, invited me there to give a talk, and I began photographing the buildings. They were still in a raw state. Ann and I connected in two other ways, one as passionate bicyclists.
The other story tells you quite a bit more about Ann. She began corresponding with Marshall Jones after I told her about his insights into Wright’s work. Jones is serving two consecutive life terms in a Wisconsin prison for a double murder.
When I interviewed Jones in 2008 for a project about the criminal justice system he told me how much he enjoys reading “anything I can get.” I sent him my Wright in Racine book. He quickly sent me an incisive review back. We began corresponding, in large part about Wright. How much does Jones understand Wright? In addition to Ann being impressed by his insights, the late Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer corresponded with Jones, as well, after I sent Pfeiffer some of Jones’s letters about Wright’s work. When I sent the late Ron McCrea Jones’s review of his Building Taliesin, McCrea wrote me that Jones picked up on a point that no one else had, and he was going to quote him in a talk at Taliesin West. Ann corresponded with Jones for many years, and Jones often wrote me how much he appreciated her letters and friendship. Now I must write him about Ann’s passing.
Ann’s memorial service will be Saturday November 30, as noted in the obituary. I will leave you with a photo of Ann in the bank building in 2010, and of Ann and Bob McCoy she and Wright on the Park were honored with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s prestigious Wright Spirit Award on October 13, 2012, during the group’s annual conference:
Thank you, Ann, for your friendship and service.
(My remembrance of Bob McCoy is at:
https://wrightinracine.net/tag/bob-mccoy/
Please scroll down for previous posts on this website.
Ron could not resist playing the piano in the living room at Taliesin each year when he helped celebrate Wright’s birthday in early June. This was in 2015.
I was honored that Ron included a photo I took of he and his beloved Elaine at Taliesin in 2008 in the book. I next photographed him when he presented his book in a talk at the Golden Rondelle at SC Johnson in Racine in December 2012:
Elaine’s son, Ben DeSmidt, center, joined us for dinner after.
Ron and Elaine at the 2014 Wright birthday dinner at Taliesin.
Wright in Racine 