Exaggerating a building’s size and adding a park or plaza to the firm’s property may have been artistic assignments about seven to nine decades ago.

The Albert Lea building to receive this attention was the factory and office structure of the American Gas Machine Co. on East Clark Street. The City Center, Albert Lea Fire Department and Albert Lea Public Library now occupy this site.

A colorful postcard with a 1911 postmark shows what was then the city’s largest building as being four stories high on the Clark Street side. Because of the slope toward the lakeside, this resulted in what’s depicted as seven stories on the north end. Another way to enhance the length of this building were the 45-plus windows for each of the top stories on the east side.

Another postcard with a 1920 postmark featured a photo of this same building. In reality, there were only three stories on the Clark Street side and 27 or so windows for each of the top stories on the east side. Also, there appeared to be only four stories on the lakeside portion of the building.

The exaggerations were continued on the west side of this same building.

An artist’s illustration of the building based on a birds-eye view from the southwest side was used for several advertisements and company literature.

This illustration clearly shows the extension of the American Gas Machine Co. building toward North Newton Avenue.

The portion of the structure based on Clark Street had three stories. On the west side the of the main building were four stories.

And on the extension there were indications of the existence of five stories.

However, the most interesting detail on the 1920s illustration was the depiction of a park or plaza based on the corner of North Newton Avenue and East Clark Street.

Somewhat visible in this small park are shrubs or young trees and sidewalks leading to a center circle with either a statue or fountain.

What could have been an interesting addition to the city’s central district just never evolved. An aerial photo of the American Gas Machine Co. building taken in the late 1950s or early ’60s from the same angle as the 1920s illustration shows a somewhat different scene.

The building at the corner of Clark and Newton has been there since the 1910 era, yet it wasn’t shown on the illustration. In past years it was a garage, used as the address for Lesota Tool Co. for many years, and is now the headquarters for Alliance Benefits Group Financial Services Corp.

This photo also shows that the west side of the main building was actually three stories high towards the Clark Street side. The extension or annex on the northwest side was really four stories high.

Another illusion shown on the illustration was the 40 windows shown on the west side of the extension or annex. The photo clearly shows that there were no windows at all on the side of this building facing North Newton avenue.

And the area depicted as a park was actually a parking lot.

Contact Ed Shannon at ed.shannon@albertleatribune.com, or call 379-3434.