May 15 – Rival Banks
Winona, MN has a plethora of historic architectural sites. Two of them are the rival banks in town, the Merchants National Bank and the Winona Savings Bank. We made an impromptu tour of both. The current Merchants Bank was built in 1912 in the Prairie School architectural style.
The Winona Savings Bank was built in 1916 with Egyptian Revival style and Prairie School influences. It also serves as a museum, featuring its architecture, Italian marble, original steel vault, original furniture, and Tiffany stained glass windows. The building also displays the large gun collection and a few dusty African safari trophies of the bank’s original owners.
May 14 – Winona Scenes
A walk around Winona, MN on a beautiful day.
The structure across the street is reflected in the decorative transom over a building’s doorway.
Beautiful woodwork in the Choate Building, a registered national historic building. It was the fancy department store in my Mother’s time, now the building has been renovated into student housing apartments. Pretty fancy compared to my college housing choices!











