Old Bank Building in Albany GA

Davis-Exchange Bank Building, Albany Georgia

Date added: August 01, 2023 Categories: Georgia Office Bank Retail

South and west sides looking northeast (1982)

The Davis-Exchange Bank Building is the first of its style to be built in Albany, setting local precedents as a Georgian Revival commercial structure. The building had the most substantial concrete framing in Albany up to that time. It exemplified the Georgian Revival style through the use of red brick with light trim, rounded decorative arches, the modillioned cornice and inset decorative panels. Shortly afterwards, two hotels were built in Albany that were very similar in style and reflected the impact of this building.

It was designed by J.E.R. Carpenter (1867-1932) of New York City, who received the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1916 and had studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He is best known in the South for the Hurt Building in Atlanta and the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville.

It was built as the city's first skyscraper, to house the Albany Exchange Bank, one of the city's most important financial institutions. It replaced the bank's earlier building, which had burned. The Albany Exchange National Bank had been organized in the late 1890s and was one of several local banks. When the new bank building opened in 1921, it also housed many important local business and professional firms besides the banking operations. The bank was purchased in 1929 by Citizens and Southern. After they moved to newer facilities, the bank area became a shoe store.

Building Description

The Davis-Exchange Bank Building is a rectangular, six-story, masonry building with a flat roof designed in the commercial Georgian Revival style. It is finished in tapestry brick on its public sides and common brick on the other sides, laid as a veneer over its concrete and steel frame. The building is ornamented on two sides with string courses, decorative molded arches over the first-floor windows and doors, an elaborate cornice, and relief sculpture panels between the first two floors. The upper floors have their original windows, while replacements appear on the second and third floors. Since the building was built to house the Albany Exchange Bank, the open first floor and mezzanine reflect that purpose, while the second through sixth floors contain offices that open off both sides of an L-shaped hall. The interior walls are plaster with paneled wainscoting in the banking room. There is an original vault in the northwest section of the first floor. Much of the first floor has been remodeled over the years. The mezzanine contains plain plaster walls, a concrete floor, and no unusual details. The upper floors have plaster walls, wooden doors, and window trim. All office doors have sidelights filled with translucent glass. The upper hallways have chair railing. The building retains its original concealed concrete-and-steel frame. The original boiler has been converted from coal to gas. The building sits on a corner of a downtown city block in Albany, with sidewalks on two sides and adjacent commercial buildings on the other two sides. There are no outbuildings. Changes include the position of aluminum windows on the second and third floors and the remodeling of the first floor.