Merchants National Bank
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City National Bank
1894, Charles Hickman. 300 W. Main St. (northwest corner of Main and 3rd sts.)
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(West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
A rugged Richardsonian Romanesque building, this three-story bank takes advantage of its corner location with a rounded entrance bay. A pride of particularly ferocious lions guards the entrance, which—with complicated curves and angles, recessions and projections—must have taxed the skills of the masons who built it. Color-coordinated quarry-faced sandstone and dark red, hard-pressed brick form the wall surfaces. A corbeled cornice and parapet top the building, which gives solid architectural assurance that any deposits it holds will be secure.
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