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
The interior of this bank is not as elaborate as the one in Owatonna but it still includes the large expanse of stained glass for a well-lighted open space. Placing the vault at the forefront of the design was something that differentiated this bank from the others I saw on this trip.
Stained glass windows
Window detail
View towards the vault. Sullivan placed the vault so the door would be at the center when looking across the room. The bank manager told me that the previous building had a robbery and the bank wanted to show the vault to assure its customers that their deposits were safe.
Portrait of Louis Sullivan on the wall. They gave me a flyer on the history of the bank. Everyone who I met when shooting the interiors were proud of the historic building that they were working in. They were all used to architecture students coming in to take pictures. Some had welcomed tours.
Clock on the wall above the vault
Interior corner ornament. These pedestals were part of the original air conditioning system, which sprayed a cooling mist through ductwork. The mist wasn’t so cooling in a humid Ohio summer, but the ductwork is still used for the modern A/C system.
Vault door
Looking towards the entrance
Water fountain
Water fountain detail
War for Ukraine Day 931: Lessons from Alice
Sourmash
A national treasure, to be sure! It shows that great architecture can be (should be?) simple, refined, thoughtful and gracious. Thanks for posting!
marklar
To the extent that ghosts exist, the spirits of those who designed and built places like this are still interacting with us in ways we don’t usually notice. What a lovely reminder that what is often considered mundane is often the painstaking art and care of people long passed.
waspuppet
I meant to say this yesterday, but last week someone said that the exterior of the Owatonna bank echoed features of the design of American currency, and I think this bank does too—mostly in the way it suggests columns without actually having them.
knally
So glad to see the stained glass windows. I was wondering what they were like yesterday.
Also love the water fountain.
Am I right in thinking that all the materials that look like granite are a simulcra of that material? Since it’s humungously difficult to carve in detail.
frosty
@knally: Yes, it’s not granite but terra cotta. Clay pressed into a mold then fired.
zhena gogolia
Fantastic!
Betty
The warmth of the interior is in stark contrast to colder modern financial institutions that are pretty much steel and glass.
The Red Pen
I wish all banks looked like this. I might like them more.
stinger
What a lovely place in which to go to work every day. With the previous bank in your series, I was thinking how proud the masons and tile layers and such must have been when they worked on it; now I’m thinking of the people who go to work in it!
BellyCat
Sullivan was a genius. Without him, Frank Lloyd Wright (a pupil of Sullivan’s) would not be what he was.
laura
Louis Sullivan’s architectural style is truly the embodiment of social good meets civic pride. How can you not feel good in such a space?
TF79
Thanks for sharing!
schrodingers_cat
@frosty are you an architect? Were you the one that recommended using a lead holder for drawing? I am getting myself one from Uni.
Yutsano
The crosses in the stained glass remind me of the Maltese cross. Of course we can’t ask Sullivan what his inspiration was, but it’s a beautiful design.
arrieve
I am loving these posts. Thank you so much for sharing.
way2blue
Frosty—so nice to see these graceful buildings preserved with all their finery intact. Your sweep of photos prompted me to check the history of the British Bankers Club on El Camino Real in Menlo Park, CA. Turns out it was built in 1925 by local architect, Birge Clark. Who, with his son, built several notably buildings and homes in Palo Alto and on Stanford University campus. BBC is currently a restaurant with a fun summertime rooftop bistro.
Origuy
I like to stay at classic old hotels even if the shower is down the hall and the rooms are tiny. I stayed in the General Denver Hotel in Wilmington, Ohio a few months ago. It was built in 1928. It boasts the oldest operating elevator in Ohio; requires an employee to operate it. The bar is gorgeous.
Another one is the Bridgeport Hotel in the eastern Sierra near Bodie, built in 1877.
KRK
Lovely. Thanks so much for recording and sharing this trip!
Are those bank offices behind the draperies?
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, I was the one who recommended a lead holder. I wanted to be an architect but was in a school that didn’t offer that degree and didn’t want to transfer, so I ended up as a Water Resources Engineer doing watershed planning. After detours into cost/scheduling and transportation engineering.
frosty
@KRK: I don’t know what is behind the draperies. I suspect they would have been teller stations because of the location. The offices were in the one-story wing attached to the larger structure.
WaterGirl
I think we have a train station post coming up next week.
Maybe these bank posts will spur someone or someones to send in some train station posts and old hotels posts!