Ten miles north of Mason City on US 65 is the small community of Manly, situated within an open and fertile prairie. On Elmore Street, west of Broadway, is the two-story First State Bank building (c. 1915). The designer of this narrow, elegantly detailed building utilized a Beaux-Arts Classical vocabulary of fluted Ionic columns, entablatures, and pedimented lintels. What helps to carry it off is the material of the facade, glistening white glazed terracotta and glazed brick.

While in town proceed to the southeast corner of Harris and Blanche streets where you can see a wonderful historical sequence of grain elevators (c. 1930–1970); also one can contrast the town's older water tank, supported on four metal legs, to its newer water tower, a globe placed on a single gobletlike stem.