The First Bank of the United States 1797 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The First Bank of the United States 1797 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 The First Bank of the United States—originally called the Bank of the United States—operated from 1797-1811, on Third Street, midway between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Samuel Blodgett, Jr., merchant, author, publicist, promoter, architect, and "Superintendent of Buildings" for the new capital in Washington, DC, designed the building in 1794. 1 At its completion in 1797, the bank won wide acclaim as an architectural master piece. By today's standards the building remains a notable early example of Classical monumental design.

 

The bank is a three-story brick structure with a marble front and trim. It measures 90' 11" across the front by 81' 9". Its seven-bay marble facade, with the large 48' x 11' Corinthian hexastyle portico, is the work of Claudius F. LeGrand and Sons, stone workers, woodcarvers and guilders. The remarkably intact portico tympanum, restored in 1983, contains elaborate mahogany carvings of a fierce-eyed eagle grasping a shield of thirteen stripes and stars and standing on a globe festooned with an olive branch. The restored hipped roof is covered in copper—some of which, over the portico, is original—and has a balustrade along its four sides.
 

The Corinthian hexastyle portico, is the work of Claudius F. LeGrand and Sons, stone workers, woodcarvers and guilders.

When the first charter of the Bank of the United States lapsed in 1811, Stephen Girard purchased the building and opened his own bank, Girard Bank, in 1812. Although at Girard's death in 1832 the building was left in trust to the City of Philadelphia, the Girard Bank continued in operation there until 1929, covering a 117-year occupancy. In 1902 the Girard Bank hired James Windrim, architect, to remodel the interior. Windrim removed the original barrel vaulted ceiling and introduced a large skylight over a glass-paned dome to furnish more light for the first floor tellers. He altered the original hipped roof further with the introduction of a shaft tower on the west side of the building for an elevator. Between 1912 and 1916 Girard Bank also constructed a two-story addition on the west facade of the building.

 

The restored hipped roof is covered in copper—some of which, over the portico, is original—and has a balustrade along its four sides.

After being vacated in 1929, the bank building languished until the National Park Service purchased it in 1955 as part of Independence National Historical Park. Between 1974 and 1976 the Park restored the building's eighteenth century exterior appearance and retained its 1902 interior remodeling, leaving an 86' x 67' banking room on the first floor and numerous smaller rooms—used as park offices and library space—around its outer perimeter on the second and third floors. The central area is defined by a circular Corinthian columned rotunda on the first and second floors and an electrically lit glass dome at the third floor level. The cellar retains its 1795 stone-walled and brick-vaulted rooms, sane still having their original sheet iron vault doors.

Detail of the pediment. The elaborate mahogany carvings of cornucopia, oak branch and a fierce-eyed eagle grasping a shield of thirteen stripes and stars and standing on a globe festooned with an olive branch is painted to match the marble and has survive for over 200 years

The First Bank of the United States is significant because the institution provoked the first great debate over strict, as opposed to an expansive interpretation of the Constitution. In adopting Hamilton's proposal and chartering the bank both the Congress and the President took the necessary first steps toward implementing a sound fiscal policy that would eventually ensure the survival of the new federal government and the continued growth and prosperity of the United States.

Check out the other eagle atop the gateway that leads to the courtyard on the northern side of the building.

 

The First Bank of the United States is also architecturally significant. Designed by Samuel Blodgett with Joseph P. LeGrand as marble mason, the First Bank was probably the first important building with a classic facade of marble to be erected in the United States. Although somewhat changed by subsequent alterations, the exterior of the building is today essentially as it was in 1795, the date of the earliest drawing and description uncovered so far. Unfortunately, lack of documentation and extensive alterations perpetrated in 1901-02 leaves knowledge of the interior inadequate.

The Corinthian hexastyle portico, is the work of Claudius F. LeGrand and Sons, stone workers, woodcarvers and guilders.

 

The First Bank of the U.S. building is an excellent example of Classical/Revival Federal -style architecture. It was designed by Philadelphia architect Samuel Blodget Jr. and was built between 1795 and 1797. It was quite large compared to

 other structures of the day and Blodget designed it that way so that it would exude a feeling of power and strength. The design was also engineered to resemble the buildings of Ancient Greece and to recall that civilization’s democratic policies and architectural splendor.
 

The Corinthian hexastyle portico, is the work of Claudius F. LeGrand and Sons, stone workers, woodcarvers and guilders.

 

The Corinthian hexastyle portico, is the work of Claudius F. LeGrand and Sons, stone workers, woodcarvers and guilders.