Grand Rapids National Bank Building
You are here
McKay Tower (Grand Rapids National Bank Building)
1915–1916, Williamson, Crow and Proctor; 1921–1927 addition. 146 Monroe Center NW
The triangular site created by the street layout dictated the unusual plan of this Beaux-Arts classical bank. In 1921–1927 eleven stories were added to the four-story bank that was a makeover of a two-story 1890s building. Paired, fluted Roman Doric columns starting at the second level support a prominent entablature and frame the pedimented street-level entrances on three sides of the bank. White terra-cotta above a granite base clads the steel-frame building. Anthemion antefixes ornament the metopes in the frieze of this “temple of finance.” After the bank closed during the Great Depression, it was purchased by politician Frank D. McKay and renamed the McKay Tower.
Writing Credits
×
Data
-
Location: Grand Rapids, MichiganRegional Overviews:Architect:Styles:
What's Nearby
Citation
Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "McKay Tower (Grand Rapids National Bank Building)", [Grand Rapids, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-KT7.
Print Source
Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 249-249.
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.