On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
This bank was our next stop, since we’re meandering through the Midwest. People’s was the seventh of the eight small-town banks that Sullivan designed, and it continues to operate as a bank. Like the Owattona bank, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
The following history is from Archipedia https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/OH-01-149-0063
“LaFayette M. Studevant, founder of the Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association, was looking for an architect who could combine beauty, public convenience, and advanced technology in the design for a new building his bank planned to erect in a prominent location in Sidney, across from the historic Shelby County Courthouse on the south side of Public Square. After Studevant visited the Home Building Association Bank that Louis H. Sullivan designed for the town of Newark, 100 miles east, he knew he’d found the right architect for his building in Sidney.
As in much of his work, Sullivan turned to the natural world to find inspiration for the organic colors and patterns that define his rich ornamentation. Architectural decorator Louis J. Millet translated Sullivan’s forms into frescoes and mosaics and clay modeler Kristian Schneider translated them into molds for plaster, metal, and terra-cotta.”
Courthouse square. Sullivan designed several of these small banks in a prominent location.
Entrance view
Ornament on the front below the arch
Arch detail
Side view with stained glass windows, framed with terra cotta. The smaller brick building to the right is also a part of Sullivan’s design.
Upper ornament on the side
Details of the terra cotta on the smaller building windows
Griffin on the upper side corner
Side ornament This repeats the ornament found in the front of the building, likely cast from the same mold with different materials.
Classical Revival on the north side of the courthouse square. We see this everywhere. This was the trend that came out of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago that Sullivan opposed. His approach of ‘honesty in architectural design’ was no longer popular. Because he wouldn’t compromise his convictions and design in this style his career afterwards was limited to small commissions. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright both thought the Exposition set American architecture back 40 years.
Don
A game called Satisfactory came out yesterday, which many people have been playing for years. I just started, but had a hundred hours in already. I’m saving your images as inspiration for building. Those banks are amazing! Thanks for firing up my imagination this morning.
knally
This is wonderful. I like how so many different architectural and design styles have been incorporated to make such a pleasing whole.
Tenar Arha
I love those decorations. Beautiful.
zhena gogolia
Thank you — really beautiful!
Madeleine
Thank you for both photos and commentary. This and last week’s bank are such beautiful stately buildings. American treasures.
VOR
I confess I have not been paying attention to this series. Have you covered Merchants’ National Bank in Grinnell, IA? It is another of the Sullivan banks. Grinnell is about 45 miles due east of Des Moines along I-80 and is home to Grinnell College.
frosty
@VOR: I didn’t get to Grinnell IA on this trip. It’s on my list the next time we head west though.
KRK
Lovely photos of a beautiful building. Thank you so much.
LiberalOBDoc
I’m one of the local OB/GYNs in Sidney…never expected to see it on BJ!
Shana
I’m looking forward to the Columbus, WI bank. My maternal grandparents siblings (I think) lived in Columbus. I have dim memories of visiting them as a very small child.
KSinMA
Thanks, frosty. Amazing photos.
stinger
Thank you! Love the rich ornamentation on these big square buildings. (How to say I know nothing about architecture without saying I know nothing about architecture.)