William L. Steele

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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 Courthouse 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.