William L. Steele

William LaBarthe Steele (1875-1949) was an important architect of the Prairie School during the early twentieth century. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Steele worked in the offices of Louis Sullivan in Chicago, Illinois, before settling in Sioux City, Iowa. He designed a large number of commercial buildings, churches, synagogues, homes, schools, and government buildings in the greater Sioux City area. The [http://freepages.books.rootsweb.com/~cooverfamily/siouxcity/siouximages/courthouse_pg_57.jpgCourthouse] in Woodbury County, Iowa is considered his masterpiece, and is arguably the premier example of Prairie School aesthetics in the context of a public space. He collaborated with Minneapolis architects William Gray Purcell and George Grant Elmslie (also proteges of Louis Sullivan) on the design of the Courthouse, which is now a National Historic Landmark. Several of Steele's works are also on The National Register of Historic Places.