First National Bank of Mason City, Historical bank building in Mason City, Iowa.

The First National Bank of Mason City is a 6½-story Early Commercial building of plain brick, with a modestly decorated main floor and attic level and five plain floors between. Liebbe, Nourse & Rasmussen of Des Moines designed it, and C.E. Atkinson of Webster City built it in 1911. A two-story annex replaced the demolished building to its north in 1982.

Liebbe, Nourse & Rasmussen of Des Moines designed the building, their only Mason City commission; C.E. Atkinson of Webster City, who had built other Liebbe designs, constructed it, and it was completed in 1911. The bank took most of the first floor and some offices above, and by the 1960s it occupied the whole building. A building to the north was torn down in 1982 and replaced by a two-story annex.

The building's names track its changing role: First National Bank, then Norwest Bank Building, and since 1995 City Center of Mason City, when the bank was converted into apartments and offices. The 1982 two-story annex replaced a demolished building to the north. The bank's first-floor banking hall and upper professional offices reflect how such buildings mixed commerce and office work.

The building stands in downtown Mason City; its two-story annex dates from 1982, when the structure to the north was torn down. City Center of Mason City Inc. bought the property in 1995 and remodeled it into apartments and offices, so the interior is not a bank hall to tour. Look for the modestly decorated main floor and attic level framing five plain brick floors.

The robbers were John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, John Hamilton and Tommy Carroll, who took about $50,000 on March 13, 1934; Dillinger was wounded in the gunfire. The building later became the Norwest Bank Building and City Center of Mason City, converted into apartments and offices after a 1995 purchase.