Main III

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Overview

05

Owner

Luther College

Building Name

Main III

Year Built

1952

Architectural Style

International Style

Tour Type

Luther College Tour

Constructed in 1952, this is the third Luther College “Main” building. The prior two Mains were both destroyed by fire, the first in 1889 (built 1865), the second in 1942 (built 1890). All three have occupied essentially the same prominent site on campus overlooking the central green. When Main II burned down, World War Two and postwar construction restrictions along with difficulties in obtaining labor and materials, delayed completion of the present Main III until 1952. Altfillisch was asked to recover the insurance money from Main II’s burning, and he was credited with being so efficient that there were adequate funds for building a new Main.

There is an interesting 1942 letter to Luther’s Board Chair George Johnson in which Altfillisch takes up the awkward assignment of evaluating the architects who might design Main III. Altfillisch dispassionately, if perhaps a little grudgingly, goes through all the major regional architects. He says there is only one Iowa architect he could recommend. In the end, he writes that Eliel “Saarinen is the most outstanding,” and notes that Altfillisch’s assistant Edward Novak, who had studied with Saarinen at the Cranbrook Academy, had Saarinen “give us some advice on the L.C. campus.” (Eliel Saarinen was one of the pre-eminent midcentury American architects. In later years he worked with his more famous son Eero Saarinen.) Throughout the letter, though, Altfillisch hints that he could himself do the job. He writes at considerable length and somewhat defensively about some negative responses to his 1940 Allamakee County Courthouse. He ends by saying that if the college decides to hire someone else, he would be willing to work as a consultant or as construction supervisor. In the end, Altfillisch got the design job.

Altfillisch’s Main III was praised in the regional press, and the 1952 Luther yearbook was dedicated to the new building. It houses the college’s administration offices, classroom space, and faculty offices for several academic departments. Unlike the first two Mains, which were massive, heavy looking buildings, Main III’s International Style presents a streamlined, airy appearance. All three Mains had tall towers, but Main III’s is more robust, and more prominent because its side wings are both low. In essence, Main III is three rectangles of different scale and height that intersect linearly at different angles. Main III’s tower offers more functional space also. Based on historic photos, the earlier Mains’ towers mostly marked the entrance and bell towers. From Main III’s 1952 dedication pamphlet: “In the north wing, which has three floors, are eighteen classrooms of varying sizes. In the south wing, which has two floors, nineteen administrative offices and supply rooms, with additional rooms for student government and publications, are accommodated. The distinctive six-story tower rises between the two wings and gives space for twenty-seven offices for faculty use…” In the late 1960s or early 1970s, the aluminum windows were changed out for combination windows with dark gray panels on the top part of the opening. The tower windows have since been returned to a configuration that more closely matches the original.

In the Luther College Campus Historic District nomination, consultant Jan Full identified three structures that might qualify individually as National Register properties: the Brandt Parsonage, the Pioneer Memorial, and Main III. (Koren Hall had previously been individually listed.)

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