Owatonna Treasure

Charles

Owatonna, Minn.,  is a community of 24,000 people south of the Twin Cities . Wells Fargo proudly occupies the bank at 101 North Cedar St., an architectural marvel from 1908 by Louis Sullivan .

Sullivan designed high-rises and rooted his philosophy in the phrase "form follows function." That is, a building took on a look and shape because of what went on in and around it. To some, Sullivan was "the father of modernism." For Owatonna, a bank functioned as the center of a community's aspirations, individual citizens and collectively. The building should be seen as a temple to that aspiration .

The National Farmers Bank of Owatonna got Sullivan to begin work in 1907, and the building was opened a year later. The interior elements were fabulous, with all kinds of materials and colors (would you believe terra cotta?)  It was one of the wonders of the banking world. And it still is, after a couple of restoration projects.

National Farmers Bank went out of business in 1926, and the building was acquired by Security State Bank. In 1929, Security State Bank joined Banco, the Northwestern National parent company in Minneapolis. Banco was a family of local banks held together for "strength in numbers" and survived the economic devastation of the 1930s. Banco evolved into Norwest , which merged with Wells Fargo in 1998.