The Commercial Bank and the Banker’s House unite in a single building: a bank fronting Main Street and a residence facing S. Canal. Contractor Andrew Brown (1793–1871) arrived in Natchez in the early 1820s and operated one of the area’s most successful sawmills. Although Brown designed and built a Masonic Hall (1827) and the City Hall and Market (1837), he was probably not the architect of the bank complex, since bank officials already had a “plan and specifications” in hand when they advertised for building proposals. The bank’s president, Levin R. Marshall, may have used the same architect for the bank and his private residence, Richmond (ND55), because neither has any regional characteristics, and both are more stylistically up-to-date, academically correct, and finely finished than other Natchez buildings of the period.
A giant-order Ionic portico fronts the bank, the only antebellum building in Natchez with a stone facade. The Banker’s House is finished in stucco, scored to resemble stone, but stone is used on the Doric portico and window sills. Both the commercial and domestic portions are lavishly and similarly trimmed with large-scale Greek Revival millwork, black marble mantels, and molded plaster cornices and ceiling centerpieces.