You are here

Wilmington Savings Fund Society

-A A +A
1920–1921, Hoggson Brothers. 1959 interior reconstructed, Hoggson Brothers. 1963 addition to south, George W. Clark. 838 N. Market St.

A slew of banks statewide attested to Delaware's economic vitality in the 1920s. This one (WSFS) was designed by a New York City firm to replace the Gothic Revival original (1886–1887, Addison Hutton). The thirteen limestone columns on the side, copies of those on the Tower of the Winds in Athens (c. 50 BC), are engaged; to vary the theme, the four across the front are free-standing. For the bank's centennial, N. C. Wyeth—trained in Wilmington at the Pyle studio (WL81)—painted an enormous, 60 × 20–foot mural, Apotheosis of the Family (1930–1932). By 1949, it was said that every third Wilmingtonian was a depositor at the bank. Across the street stands an Art Deco drugstore, formerly Woolworth's (1939–1940). In 2007 it was announced that WSFS would leave the building and remove the Apotheosis mural, which several museums nationwide clamored to obtain.

Writing Credits

Author: 
W. Barksdale Maynard
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

W. Barksdale Maynard, "Wilmington Savings Fund Society", [Wilmington, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-WL26.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Delaware

Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 102-102.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,