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(Photograph by Dell Upton) -
(Photograph by Dell Upton) -
(Photograph by Dell Upton)
This colorful and dramatic former bank stands out on Van Buren’s Main Street, which can boast many handsome brick and stone-trimmed buildings. The highly textured three-story bank is constructed of red and brown brick and embellished with terra-cotta and slate. First- and second-story windows are segmental-arched, and the canted corner entrance retains the original stained glass fanlight over the door. The third story, added in 1905 for the Masons until they could complete their own building, is the most elaborately decorated, with large round-arched windows separated by patterned columns topped with blue metal cones, and the slate tiles of the spandrels between the windows painted in blues and mauves. The capstone of the building is its circular third-floor corner tower surmounted by a blue metal-covered cone rising above the main roof. R. B. Allen, building contractor for the bank, used bricks made with a pressure system to give them a smooth, dense texture that required less mortar. Banking operations ceased following the crash of October 1929; since then the building has housed several different businesses.