Former Bank Building in NJ prior to Museum Conversion
Bayonne Trust Company, Bayonne New Jersey
The Bayonne Trust Company Bank building at the corner of Broadway and Ninth Street stands as a symbol of one of the most dynamic growth eras of the City of Bayonne, known as the New Jersey metropolitan era. Its construction marked the conviction of its investors that Bayonne had progressed from its earlier identity as a peninsula of small farms to one of industrial growth. During the Civil War, the Central Railroad of New Jersey transported soldiers and supplies through the peninsula of Bayonne, demonstrating a potential yet to be tapped. After the war, the oil industry and a succession of small manufacturing firms took advantage of Bayonne's location for national and international commerce.
Architect Lansing C. Holden's choice of a Beaux-Arts design for the bank building gave the community a timeless structure that is a constant reminder of Bayonne's industrial era. The building's grand classical style, large open interior space, and traditional decor gave passers-by, as well as investors and depositors, a sense of pride in the developing community that the banking institution represented.
The Bayonne Trust Company, one of the earliest banking organizations in Bayonne, was incorporated on May 1st, 1902. That same year, the Bayonne Trust Company purchased the three-story red brick building on the Northwest corner of Broadway and Ninth Street. It belonged to Peter Brady, Jr., who advertised as a "Wholesale and Retail Dealer in; Ales, Liquors and Segars" in 1889. The prolific architect Arthur Curtis Longyear redesigned the building for use as a bank.
Having established a successful financial institution by 1912, the Bayonne Trust Company moved the Longyear bank building around the corner at 7 West Ninth Street to vacate the prime corner location on Broadway for the construction of a more prestigious structure for its banking firm. This became the site of the present bank building designed by Lansing C. Holden, Sr. in 1912.
Construction for the Bayonne Trust Company building began on May 1st, 1912. The general contractor for the new bank building was Wells & Marvin of New York, and the George Brown Company was responsible for the granite work. The construction budget for the bank was $100,000, but it cost $150,000 upon completion. The bank opened for business on November 8th, 1913. The interior became known for the display of mahogany, bronze and marble and also for the modesty of its decorations (Evening News, November 10th, 1913). It had a central teller/lobby, desk area, private offices, and vault. To the right of the entrance were the offices of the President J. Herman Mahnken, vice president and Treasurer Eugene Newkirk, and the Secretary John F. Schmidt. (Newkirk later succeeded Mahnken as president.) To the left of the entrance were the other departments. The directors' room was on the mezzanine floor.
The intact, imposing, and solid structure of granite and brick veneer with classical features is reflective of the commercial goals of the investors and the community to share in the prosperity of the times. The design elements are drawn from a mix of classical architectural forms.
There eventually were two branches of the bank: one at 25 Street (544 Broadway) and another at 41 Street (873-875 Broadway) in Bayonne. The Bayonne Trust Company continued to own the building and its branches under that name until 1948, when it became the Commercial Trust Company of New Jersey. A "ghost advertisement" on the South side of the former branch building on 41 Street and Broadway continues to display the Commercial Trust Company name. Succeeding owners of the Ninth Street building were the United Jersey Bank, Summit Bank, and Fleet National Bank. The latter merged with Summit Bancorp of Princeton, NJ, on April 1st, 2001. On December 19th, 2001, the City of Bayonne approved the acquisition of the building from Fleet National Bank.
In 1979, the firm of Convery Cueman Balsamel Longo Architects of Summit and New Providence, NJ renovated the building. It was done in four phases to allow the bank to continue to be open to the public and included the cleaning of the exterior of the building. Architectural drawings for the interior demolition and renovation are available. They show how the interior of the building was transformed from a turn of the twentieth century Beaux Arts design to a contemporary-style design, noted by descriptions such as a "reflected box beam plan," "reflected ceiling plans and details," and "floor plans and sections". Plans for the mechanical and electrical systems were not found.
In the renovation of the main floor, the entrance area was redesigned with the removal of an alarm, entrance doors, glass, and frames. The new front entrance of aluminum was designed to conceal an overhead closure. The renovated main floor had a lobby, a platform, offices, and tellers' stations. The perimeter walls were covered by wallboard. The firm of Mandas & Orr was hired to install contemporary-style furniture and fixtures for the bank. Their design plans include drawings for oak and red oak veneer furniture, partitions of wood and glass and a reflected ceiling. Changes were made to the stairwell going down to the basement, and the bathrooms were renovated at this time. Also, the bank had the installation of a complete Dictaphone section.
The Mezzanine Demolition Plan indicates the removal of "existing wood sash of window (south side only)," mechanical and electrical systems, frames of the railing, and a partition for what may have been an office. The notation of the removal of the "acoustical ceiling and suspension system" indicates that a ceiling system previously covered the stained glass ceiling.
The operation of the Bayonne Trust Company represents the era of the industrial development of the City of Bayonne in the County of Hudson, in the State of New Jersey, at the turn of the 20th Century. It was founded at the very time that the city was moving forward to its greatest population and economic growth, and it is representative of New Jersey's metropolitan era (1910-1945). The population of the city almost tripled from 19,033 to 55,545 during the peak years of industrialization from 1890 to 1910. Immigration from Eastern and Central Europe contributed to the population growth of Bayonne, and these newcomers to America settled in the city to work in the numerous industrial plants found on the "Peninsula of Industry."
The Central Railroad of New Jersey and petroleum-related industries (Standard Oil of New Jersey, Tidewater Oil Company, Gulf Refinery, and Texaco) on the eastern waterfront of the New York Bay and Kill von Kull, or the Constable Hook area, were mostly responsible for the new development. Other corporations and businesses thriving in the city were: Bayonne Steel Casting Company, Bergen Point Iron Works, ELCO Naval Division, General Chemical Company, Babcock & Wilcox Company, James Brady's Sons Company, International Nickel Company, American Radiator Company, and Bayonne Bolt & Nut Company.
The City of Bayonne was incorporated in 1869 and developed as a community during the post-Civil War industrial era. It is located at the southern end of the Bergen Neck peninsula in the northeastern section of New Jersey. The city experienced a rapid growth in population and change from a scattered settlement of villages on the peninsula prior to the Civil War to a municipality of mixed residential and commercial sections. Bayonne's first bank was the Mechanics' Trust Company organized in 1886, and it was also located in the Bergen Point section of the city. The addition of the Bayonne Trust Company to the same locality indicates the significance of the neighborhood as a business district. Other financial institutions to follow were: The First National Bank, organized in 1903, at the corner of 33rd Street; and the City Bank, organized in 1909, at the corner of 22nd Street.
The Bayonne Trust Company was incorporated in 1902 under the provisions of an act of the legislature of the State of New Jersey revised in 1899. When the Trust Company was incorporated, there were 25 charter stockholders, holding forty shares each, with assets of $443,195.58 as of the end of the year 1902. The stockholders were all Bayonne residents, except for three individuals. Among the stockholders were: Rienzi Cadugan, poor master of the City of Bayonne; Egbert Seymour, mayor of the City of Bayonne, 1895-1904; Emmett Smith, city surveyor; Lucius F. Donohue, MD; George H. Sexsmith, MD; M.V. Stringham, a contractor; and Horace Roberson, an attorney. When the new bank building opened in 1913, the assets were $2,211,126.10.
From an examination of representative ledgers, documents, and other records as well as local newspaper articles, one may understand the operation of the Bayonne Trust Company and how it fulfilled its mission as a trust company in the community of Bayonne. They indicate that the founders of the bank had a vision, plan and strategy for the institution described below. The records and documents are stored in a storage space atop the back of the bank vault on the main floor.
According to its charter and by-laws, the purpose of the trust company was to pursue business; local, county and state, as a transfer agent to receive and disburse moneys, to transfer certificates of stocks, bonds, and other instruments of indebtedness, and to loan money on the basis of real or personal securities. As a trust company, by definition, the trustees were empowered to safeguard and administer the institution's assets and the money of others and their beneficiaries.
The Bayonne Trust Company charter specifically lists the administration of trust estates, especially for married women and children, as part of its stewardship. Two community-based trusts handled by the bank were for the Women's Missionary Society of the First Street Reformed Church in Bayonne and the Young Women's Christian Association of Bayonne. The latter organization was of interest to the bank through the family of its president J. Herman Mahnken. His sisters donated the property for the construction of an English colonial structure of red brick at 44 West 32nd Street to serve as the residence of women working and living in the city. It was dedicated to Mr. Mahnken in 1926. According to local historian Gladys M. Sinclair, at the dedication ceremony "Mr. W.C. Koehler, general manager of the Standard Oil Company in a brief address eulogized the late Mr. Mahnken and on behalf of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, presented to the Y.W.C.A. a check for Five Thousand Dollars …". The Y.W.C.A. building was recently converted into the Annie E. Mahnken Apartments for senior women.
The Bayonne Trust Company raised revenue from its deposits and from its investment in stocks, bonds, mortgages and other securities. Listings of stocks owned by the bank over the years show an investment by the bank in several of the corporations operating in the city (see above) and employing many of its residents. After the beginning of the operation of the Federal Reserve System in 1914, the bank came under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Ledgers also list the properties (and their book value) owned by the bank as well as mortgages on these and other properties. The collection of payments on mortgages and other loans are recorded in the minutes of the monthly executive meetings. From time to time, minutes also record when the collections of loan payments were in default and how this needed to be remedied.
The bank made loans to individuals on collateral, such as stock holdings in Standard Oil of New Jersey and AT&T, which were recorded in the bank's ledgers. Standard Oil and the Western Electric, a subdivision of AT&T in nearby Kearny, employed many Bayonne residents during this time period. Profit-sharing programs may have been the source of stockholding for the borrowers. The Bayonne Trust Company also made loans to business firms in Bayonne involved in community building and development. Among them were the Bayonne Building Association, Centreville Building and Loan Association, Pamrapo Building and Loan Association, Bayonne Supply Company, Fifth Street Reformed Church, and Julius A. Rose, Realtor.
The building associations mentioned above were the predecessors of the savings and loans associations today. For example, the Pamrapo Building and Loan Association was founded in 1887 as a thrift institution for residents to pool their money to make available first mortgages on owner-occupied homes. It became the Pamrapo Savings and Loan Association. The Centreville Building and Loan Association, organized in 1889, was founded by William C. Farr (Bayonne mayor from 1895-1904) and attorney Horace Roberson of Roberson and Roberson at 29 West Eighth Street, not far from the Bayonne Trust Company Bank building. Its purpose was to assist with the financing of home construction in the Centreville section of Bayonne, between 16th to 30th streets, for the growing number of workers employed in the industrial Constable Hook area. It later became the First Savings and Loan Association of Bayonne.
The bank's deposit receipts reveal the names of local residents, businessmen and institutions, including the City of Bayonne. For example, the Bayonne Hospital and Dispensary (independent) conducted a rather protracted campaign fund to build a new facility from about 1908. Deposits to the fund's account with the bank were among the bank's largest for several years.
When a second campaign was started to begin construction in 1927 for the new Bayonne Hospital (now Bayonne Medical Center) at East 29th Street and the Bayonne Hospital Nurses Dormitory, the Bayonne Trust Company again held the deposits from the Building Fund. Both buildings cost $1,000,000. The money was raised in a citywide campaign conducted by Dr. Lucius F. Donohoe, who was the medical director of the hospital for many years and a mayor of the City of Bayonne (1931-1939). Dr. Donohoe was also a charter member of the Bayonne Trust Company. John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil made the largest contribution of $75,000.00; his company, which operated in Bayonne, donated an additional $40,000.00; and his employees contributed a reported $32,000.00.
One of the architectural features of the Bayonne Trust Company building is the vault (see Interior). Its massive physical presence stood to assure depositors that their savings were secure. The safe deposit boxes within were also affordable storage for their valuables of jewelry, stocks, bonds and other securities. In a working class community, the vault represented the bank's fiduciary care of the hard-earned savings of its clients. Bank records include the "Tellers Cash Proof" of the silver, gold, bills and change in the vault on a monthly basis.
Like other financial institutions, the Bayonne Trust Company and its depositors were affected by the Depression. In a "Report of Examination" at the close of business on October 7th, 1930, filed by the Bergen Audit Company in Jersey City and found among bank records, the following statement describes how the bank operated during these challenging years:
It was further noted that the bank had been free of borrowed money for many years.
On November 12th, 1931, the Bayonne Times published an article announcing that the banks in Bayonne would all distribute Christmas Club savings to depositors after November 12th, 1931. The article attempts to assure depositors that their savings accounts were intact for withdrawals. The Christmas Club for the Bayonne Trust Company amounted to $310,000.00 for 5,200 persons. It had the second-highest number of depositors after the Hudson County National Bank in Bayonne with $500,000.00 for 7,500 persons.
However, between 1932 and 1933, considered to be the worst time of the Depression, the bank suffered financial reverses. On September 15th, 1932, the bank president reported at the monthly meeting of the executive committee that there was a decrease in check deposits, special deposits, bills purchased and number of depositors. The total assets as the end of the year 1933 were $8,930,346.46, a decline from the 1929 end-of-year assets of $11,304,680.41, two months after the stock market crash. In March 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a "Bank Holiday." Bayonne had seven banks at the time, and they were all closed by order of New Jersey's Governor A. Harry Moore. Only secure banks were permitted to re-open, and the Bayonne Trust Company, with its two branches, was allowed to resume operations under a state license.
In 1945, the Bayonne Trust Company was invited to join the Hudson County Group of New Jersey Bankers to form a credit pool. Among the 23 commercial banks recorded in the group in Hudson County were the Broadway National Trust (Bayonne) and the Trust Company of New Jersey (Jersey City). At the end of that business year, the Bayonne Trust Company reported assets of $22,989,106.76, which indicated a growth of operation through the World War II period. However, the Bayonne Trust Company was dissolved in 1948, and it became the Commercial Trust Company of New Jersey (Dissolution recorded September 15th, 1948, Deed Book 2328:434).
Going forward as the Commercial Trust Company, a ledger records "Certification" of deposits of local businesses and organizations from 1948 to 1955. Among them are: Bridge Tavern, Ace Auto Service, Women's Benefit Association, Kill Von Kull Yacht Club, Best Foods, Inc., Holy Family Academy, Seymour Agency, Bayonne Diner, Inc., Electro Dynamic, Esso Standard Oil Refinery, Keenan-Cashman Co., Burnett Electric Co., Pamrapo Savings and Loan Association, Jersey Yacht Club, Catholic War Veterans, and Feeney and Murphy, Inc. The list reads like a directory of familiar Bayonne businesses of the post-World War II era.
During its forty-six years of operation (1902 to 1948), the Bayonne Trust Company thereby served the City of Bayonne as a stable financial institution. Its entrepreneurial operations involved the extension of loans and mortgages for the expansion of businesses and the housing in the working-class community during its era of significant population growth and industrialization. It was a vital part of the economic growth of the city along with the industrial plants and factories that helped transform Bayonne during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Bayonne Trust Company Bank was built during the period of Beaux Arts style (1900-1920) in America. It is an example of an excellent interpretation of Beaux Arts commercial building in Bayonne, New Jersey, designed by the notable architect Lansing C. Holden, Sr., (3/2/1855-5/5/1930).
A graduate of Wooster University, Holden was a president of the Architectural League and a president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He retained offices in both New York City (103 Park Avenue) and Scranton, Pennsylvania. Holden was a major contributor to the formation of the American Institute of Architects Code of Ethics and a member of the Board of Examiners of the City of New York in 1916 and the Board of Standards and Appeals of New York City from 1916 to 1918. Holden had designed the Bayonne Hospital building in 1910. He also designed the New York offices of the Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad, the Charlton Street Mission in New York, and the First Presbyterian Church (1902) and Green Ridge Library (1889) among other properties at Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The bank building dominates the corner site of Ninth Street and Broadway with its grand design and urban presence. It overshadows the commercial and residential properties in the immediate area; it sits as an anchor corner property in contrast to the fabrication, style and design of the other properties. The intact, imposing and solid structure of gray granite and brick veneer is reflective of the commercial goals of the investors and the community to share in the prosperity of the times. It reflects the Beaux Arts design philosophy to combine sound construction and classical imagery in urban settings. However, as a Beaux Arts design it is pared down to the basic elements representative to the style, providing a sense of "modern classicism." The building has no _ sculpture, for example, which may be found on some Beaux Arts buildings.
When the bank was opened to the public, it was called "one of the prettiest in the city and the interior is beautiful" (Evening News, November 8th, 1913). The bank's interior finishes of mahogany, bronze and marble had decorations reported as "while not elaborate … beautiful in their simplicity" (Evening News, November 10th, 1913).
The interior retains a remarkable amount of its initial design. Although it was stripped of its original light fixtures and furniture, the original wall and ceiling surfaces, as well as, the decorative elements such as cornice molding, pilasters, and wainscot on the rear wall of the mezzanine remain intact. The recently exposed fluted Ionic pilasters on the northern and southern walls are an excellent execution of simple pilasters used in Beaux Arts design for public buildings. The exposed lay light of stained glass repeats the basic design motif used on the exterior of the building with the garlands/floral representative of the Beaux Arts design and remains a character-defining feature in the space.
The property has undergone repairs to secure and maintain the building in its unoccupied state. An exterior handicap ramp was added and the bathrooms renovated. The exterior of the building exists however in essentially the same status as originally constructed, with the exception of the roof, which has been altered to remove the skylight and re-roofed with built-up membrane roofing. The building's exterior retains its original appearance and a high level of design integrity. Character-defining features of its Beaux-Arts design, such as the monumental entry with its columns, pedimented doorway and segmental arch transom, repeated on the Ninth Street elevation with the addition of a monumental segmental window, and its prominent cornice, remain intact.
Building Description
The Bayonne Trust Company Bank building is located at 229-231 Broadway, on the northwest corner of Broadway and West Ninth Street, in Bayonne, New Jersey. The bank has two designed facades; its principal entry facade has a 56-foot frontage on Broadway and its side elevation extends 72.97 feet along West Ninth Street. The building is zoned C-3 within the Central Commercial District, located in Lot 30 in Block 277 on the Tax Map of the City of Bayonne. It is constructed to the lot line and there is no on-site parking.
The 4,086 square-foot bank building is two stories tall and clad in Vermont gray granite. It was designed in the Beaux Arts style by the architect Lansing C. Holden, Sr., and it opened in 1913. It remained in continued use as a bank until the ownership of the building was transferred by deed to the City of Bayonne in 2002. Only two of Holden's original blueprints of the building are extant.
The bank is located within the central business district's recently renovated downtown section, in close proximity to the historic Bergen Point section of Bayonne. To the west of the building are smaller, mixed-use frame buildings near a residential neighborhood. The bank's immediate context includes other significant buildings, such as the Mechanics Trust Company on Eighth Street (now a Head Start building), and the footprint of the Eighth Street Station and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which ran along Avenue E from 1864 to 1970. North of the bank is the main business district, generally located along Broadway from 17" to 30th Streets. Broadway is a mixed-use avenue that extends the entire length of Bayonne. Opposite the bank building on the east side of Broadway is the Bayonne Diner at Eighth Street; adjacent to the bank on Broadway is a two-story office building.
The design of the Bayonne Trust Company Bank was executed in the popular Beaux-Arts style of the time period, with classical proportions and ornament, and clad in solid ashlar granite revetments. It is raised on a basement, expressed on the exterior as a solid classical plinth.
One enters the building by way of the original four-riser granite stairs leading to the front entrance. Contemporary wrought iron railings, not original to the building, are at each side of the stairs. They are in good condition and are serviceable for the safety of users. The 44-foot-tall facades on Broadway and West Ninth Street contain monumental recessed openings flanked with engaged fluted Ionic columns and large expanses of glazing, and are surmounted by a prominent overhanging denticulated and modillioned cornice with a balustrade above.
The principal facade facing Broadway is dominated by a monumental recessed opening flanked by solid piers of ashlar granite. Within the opening is a projecting central entry, framed by a lugged architrave and topped with a pediment; it is flanked by two monumental engaged fluted Ionic columns. Above the doorway is a large segmental-arched transom. The original arched-segmented steel fabricated window accents the second-story level of the building. The window is framed on the exterior in stone with a decorative keystone protruding from the curved stone lintel. The glass windowpanes are in a design of five large subdivided windowpanes across by six large subdivided windowpanes down; each of the large windowpanes is subdivided into four smaller windowpanes. The interiors of the windowpanes were painted black to satisfy "blackout" requirements during World War I.
The building is crowned by a full classical entablature of a cornice with modillions and a frieze. The original name "Bayonne Trust Company" is etched on the frieze, below the cornice. The cornice is supported by a classical balustrade.
At the entrance, the existing replacement double doors of contemporary glass and bronze oxidized aluminum, surmounted with transoms, are not original. They may have been installed in 1979 during the time of a building renovation. A blueprint by Holden of the interior main floor shows that originally there were entry gates. A stone lintel above the entry door bears the engraving "Incorporated 1902," marking the date of the bank's beginnings in the city. A large six-sided bronze lamp flanks each side of the entrance; each of the original lamps is intact and in very good condition. A night deposit box (After Hours Depository) is located to the right of the doorway, and a modern metal and glass bulletin board is located to the left; neither is original to the building. At the edge of the right side of the facade is the cornerstone with "1912" engraved to mark the groundbreaking of the building.
The West Ninth Street (southern) facade has essentially the same architectural elements as the eastern facade, excepting an entrance. Paired, two-story, engaged fluted Ionic columns flank the monumental segmented arch window, which is approximately 20 feet tall. Like the transom on the Broadway elevation, the large center window has a decorative arched lintel and keystone.
The second-story section of the large center window system is original to the building. It is a steel fabricated window. The glass windowpanes are in a design of five large subdivided windowpanes across by three subdivided large windowpanes down; each of the large windowpanes is subdivided into four smaller windowpanes. The interiors of the windowpanes were painted black to satisfy "blackout" requirements during World War II similar to the Broadway facade window. A decorative lintel with a dentil design separates the first and second story sections of the window.
The first-story section of the window system consists of a large rectangular glass windowpane, approximately five-foot wide by nine-foot high; on each side is a narrow window, approximately twenty inches wide by nine foot high, in an aluminum frame that is set in wood. It may have replaced the original window at the time of the renovation of the interior of the building in 1979. Covering the window is a three-part decorative steel grille/guard in a lattice motif that is original to the building. The grille for the center window has forty-five lattice panels (five across and nine down); the two side windows have eighteen panels each (two across and nine down). The metal grille continues in the same plane as the wall. It is composed of a steel flat-stock fabricated frame into which the lattice panels have been screwed into place. The grille originally may have been treated for preservation and then painted over the years. Each of the panels measures ten inches wide and eleven and one-quarter inches high. The design motif of the window grille is repeated in the grille-pattern openings in the granite at the basement level, between the engaged Ionic columns on the Broadway facade, and in the grille pattern seen in the interior stained glass ceiling lay light. The grille/guard contributes not only as a design element but also as a security feature intended by the architect.
The West Ninth Street facade has additional rectangular windows at the first and second-floor levels between the engaged Ionic columns and in the outer pier-like walls closer to the corner. On the second story are wood frame segmented windows that seem to be original to the building. The right corner window has been altered by the installation of a vent.
At the first story, the replacement metal rectangular windows between the engaged Ionic columns are covered by the same grille/guard with lattice design panels (three across and eight down) as the first-story section of the large center window. A carved stone garland between the first and second-story windows and between each of the paired engaged Ionic columns decorates the facade of the building. Beyond each of the paired engaged Ionic columns are replacement metal rectangular windows set in a decorative stone frame with a detailed lentil and protruding stone ledge. A grille/guard similar to the others on the first-story windows covers the windows.
The multiple-paned iron window casements at the lower register of the main segmental arch window on the West Ninth Street facade and the two smaller rectangular windows were replaced with the same contemporary metal and glass system installed at the Broadway entrance.
The Broadway facade is more solid in construction, displaying the security it offered to locals who entrusted their money to its operation. Recessed blank panels of granite between the engaged Ionic columns, placed closer together on this narrower facade, echo the windows on the Ninth Street facade. Granite grilles in the ground floor openings add decoration and a sense of security.
The bank has a 60' x 70' flat roof, pitched slightly for drainage, with built-up modified bitumen roofing membrane. It is surrounded by the balustrade and not visible from the street. A rooftop skylight that illuminated a large interior rectangular stained glass ceiling panel or lay light has been covered and sealed.
The rear (eastern) wall and the side (northern) wall, abutting the adjacent office building at 233 Broadway, are constructed of red brick masonry without architectural embellishment. The original alarm box is affixed to the rear wall, where a humidifier is attached at the basement level. A handicap ramp was installed at the end of the Ninth Street facade. An original carriage stone for the curb in front of the building is stored outside the building.
One enters the grand hall of the building from the main entrance on Broadway through a small vestibule.
The interior of the bank building has a gross area of approximately 3,840 square feet, and it consists of a grand two-story volume with an intermediate mezzanine covering approximately one-third of the main floor at the back of the building, opposite the Broadway main entrance. The floor plan is otherwise unobstructed by walls or partitions. A single staircase leads from the main level up to the mezzanine along the north wall. A beautiful curved wrought iron stair with wood handrail leads down from the main level to the basement level. The stair is located in the southwest corner of the main level under the mezzanine. The grand window on the West Ninth Street elevation at the left from the entrance and the transom above the Broadway entrance vestibule are prominent features in the space as is the second-story window, although the glass panes have been painted black.
The perimeter walls of the main first floor are decorated with plaster Ionic pilasters that have molded plaster capitals that were once finished with decorative glazing. The walls and pilasters are painted around the entirety of the space, save for the decorative finishes around the vault. The two pilasters and wall surface surrounding the vault door are polished marble. The pilasters support a denticulated cornice that encircles the room at the midpoint of its two-story-high walls. At the West Ninth Street window and the Broadway entry, monumental Ionic pilasters flank the windows and reach the full height of the room, supporting a prominent cornice with Beaux-Arts details. The West Ninth Street window and the main entry transom are each framed with a lugged architrave with an acanthus leaf accented keystone.
Wainscot and a chair-rail encircle the room at the base of the walls. At the main entry this element is marble; around the remainder of the room it is painted wood or plaster. Along the northern wall is a portion of a red brick fireplace visible through a broken section of the wall. There is no documentation of the original design of the fireplace.
There is a continuous perimeter lighting trough with lighting fixtures approximately halfway up the walls of the two-story space at the line of the mezzanine floor. Task lighting, such as sconces, may have adorned the walls for the main hall to supplement the light entering the large windows on the eastern and southern facades. The glazing in the transom and the West Ninth Street window are painted black. This may have been done during World War II to comply with the "blackout" regulations.
A steel, glass and bronze depositor's vault on a marble base by the Remington and Sherman Company of New York remains at the western end of the main hall under the leading edge of the mezzanine. The huge round vault door with the frame weighs 25 tons and swings open into the main space. The spacious vault, with its 604 polished steel safe deposit boxes of varying sizes and glass inner cladding to view the internal locking system, has been well preserved. It is an original operational, surviving element of the bank. Two design plans for the vault by Remington and Sherman are extant.
Two original rectangular stained glass panels are set in the wall to the right of the vault and remain intact. A corridor behind the vault under the mezzanine floor leads to an exit door to the rear alley of the building (western wall) and to two restrooms. There is another restroom to the right of the main entrance/vestibule along the Broadway facade. They are original to the layout of the main floor.
Approximately twenty-five feet above the main interior space, including the mezzanine, is the original rectangular lay-light, set within the expressed beams in the ceiling. The ceiling is plaster with expressed beams articulated with simple moldings. The entire ceiling is hung from the roof structure above. The lay-light consists of a large center square stained glass panel and two narrow rectangular side stained glass panels in a beam-and-panel ceiling system. Two round floral metal medallions centered in the side panels held light fixtures that have been removed and saved.
The design for the stained glass carries over the pattern for the building chosen by Holden. It features a garland of fruit and leaves, which symbolizes wealth, abundance and fecundity appropriate for a bank building and commonly found in Beaux Arts bank buildings; the garland surrounds a lattice pattern that is found on the exterior grilles of the windows. The glass lay light was originally illuminated with natural light that entered through a skylight in the roof. The exterior glass skylight was hip-peaked in design. It is not known when the skylight was removed and covered or when the first suspended ceiling was installed, obscuring the lay light.
There are holes in the plaster ceiling and the lay-light from the hangers for a hung ceiling and for light fixtures, installed in a 1979 renovation of the building's interior. The suspended ceiling was described as made of acoustical "12" x 12" ceiling tiles glued to existing ceiling surface". The suspended ceiling and lights have been removed. Above the glass lay-light today is a concrete and stone slab, constructed of poured concrete rafters with a steel frame and limestone slabs placed to fill the area where the skylight once existed.
The original flooring, which had been altered in part by previous users of the building, has been removed to reveal the concrete sub-floor. Due to the renovations by past owners, one cannot determine the original floor treatment in the main first floor hall. It may have been marble, tile, and concrete depending on the use of the space at different times.
No historic photographs of the interior have been found. The only reliable documentation is the blueprint prepared by the architect Lansing C. Holden, Sr., showing the original layout of the Bayonne Trust Company building's 56' x 65' main floor, and providing a clue to the configuration of the original interior spaces. To the right of the entrance (North) was the "Office of the President" (9.0' x 13.0'). Beyond that on the northern wall was the "Office of the Secretary and Treasurer" (13.0' x 17.6'). Facing the president's office to the south was a "Waiting Room" (11' x 13'). Low railings and gates set off the separate-use spaces on the main floor. They were likely similar to the low brass guardrail with etched glass panels at the front of the mezzanine. The "Tellers' Space" was in the center of the main floor, and the "Public Space" was along the southern wall to the left of the entrance. A locker room existed beyond the vault.
The original furnishings and fixtures were probably removed in 1979 during a major renovation of the interior by the firm of Convery Cueman Balsamel Longo Architects. In the renovation, the perimeter walls were covered with painted sheet rock and wood paneling and obscured the original design elements described above. They have been removed to reveal the original finishes.
There is a mezzanine, original to the space, at the western end of the building. One reaches the mezzanine from a set of original marble stairs covered with carpeting along the north wall. A fireplace, utility kitchen, and storage area remain from previous owners. The original marble fireplace with wood trim is set against the rear wall; it is intact and in good condition. The floor of the mezzanine appears to be constructed of dark stained close-grained hard pine in good structural condition. The original cast iron heating radiators remain. An HVAC unit on the mezzanine floor provides heat and air conditioning for the main two-story space. The mezzanine space was originally constructed for the use of the Board of Directors and most likely functioned as one space but was later divided. It probably had wood wainscot as a design element along the walls that was removed; the wainscot now is seen only on the rear wall where the fireplace remains. A partition of solid plaster from the edge of the mezzanine floor to the ceiling has recently been demolished, leaving the exposed mezzanine balcony.
Fronting the mezzanine floor, above the edge of the vault on the main floor, was a low brass guardrail with etched glass panels. It was placed on the remaining 24-inch high plaster wall topped by marble slabs. Two slabs are missing from the plaster wall, but one of the slabs was found on the mezzanine floor. The brass railing was likely similar to those used as partitions for workspaces on the main floor. A rendition of the mezzanine guardrail appears on one of the blueprints by Holden.
One reaches the unfinished basement from a set of curved wrought iron stairs. It has storage rooms, a night depository and a boiler room. There is evidence of the original coal bin and chute for heating the building. A mechanical belt-driven vacuum system, two walk-in vaults (York Safe & Lock Co.) with iron gates and steel shelves, and a mechanical hand-operated lift remain; it is not known when they were installed. There is also a drop vault for the night depository by Diebold, Inc.; the night depository, accessed from the front (Broadway facade) of the building, may have been installed in 1979. The fuel tank, later used to heat the building, was drained and sealed. The building is now heated by natural gas.
Corner of the building at Broadway and West Ninth Street looking west from east side of Broadway (2005)
Southern facade, adjacent building (Head Start), and houses on West Ninth Street looking southwest from east side of Broadway (2005)
Broadway (eastern) facade looking West from east side of Broadway (2005)
Cornerstone; also, lantern, and night depository to the right of the front door looking West from the east side of Broadway (2005)
Carved lintel over front door looking west from east side of Broadway (2005)
Lantern to the left of paired engaged Ionic columns and front door of eastern facade looking west from west side of Broadway (2005)
Crown, sign band, and capitals to paired engaged Ionic columns and window over front door looking west from the east side of Broadway (2005)
Handicap ramp at end of southern facade on West Ninth Street looking west from the southwest side of Broadway (2005)
Front door from the interior looking east from the main floor (2005)
