Abandoned bank building in Ohio

Alliance Bank - First National Bank, Alliance Ohio

Date added: June 02, 2023 Categories:

Built in 1914 and expanded in 1923, the building is an important symbol of Alliance's prosperity and standing as a center of commerce and banking in the years before and after World War I. In Stark County, the Alliance Bank was the second high-rise bank building to be built, following City National Bank in Canton, which was built in 1895, but pre-dating the First National Bank in Massillon. By the mid-1920s, the skylines of all three cities were dominated by such buildings.

The construction of the Alliance Bank changed the face of downtown Alliance by introducing a large-scale, classically-styled office building into a downtown of mostly three- and four-story 19th-century commercial buildings. Its classical style and three-part design of base, shaft and cornice was a departure from the Italianate and Romanesque styles that had come before. Imposing in its size and corner location, yet restrained in its design and ornamentation, the Alliance Bank conveyed the appropriate bank image of stability, security and trust. The design of the original 1914 building is credited to Lewis W. Thomas of Canton, while the 1923 addition and interior remodeling were accomplished by the firm of Walker and Weeks, known as the premier bank architects of Cleveland at that time.

Shortly after the Walker and Weeks addition was completed, construction began on a second high-rise bank and office building in downtown Alliance, the eight-story City Savings Bank and Trust Company Building, which was completed in 1926.

From its founding as a railroad crossroads in 1850, Alliance had grown quickly to establish itself by the early 1900s as an important industrial, transportation and commercial center of northeastern Stark County. The city's industrial-based growth of the late 19^th century, particularly the 1880s and 1890s, had hinged upon such enterprises as the Morgan Engineering Company, the Solid Steel Company, and Transue & Williams, major steel-based manufacturers. In the years immediately following the turn of the century, these mainstay industries were joined by the diversified industries of the Alliance Machine Company (1901), the McCaskey Register Company (1903) and Buckeye Jack (1904). The city's population growth, which had reached approximately 9,000 by the turn of the century, began to accelerate. The population of Alliance increased to 15,000 by 1910, and 21,000 by 1920, these numbers surpassing the much-older industrial Stark County town of Massillon.

In tandem with Alliance's industrial growth was its commercial development as a center of business and banking. Starting from its junction with the railroad crossing at its east end, Main Street developed as a solid downtown commercial center, with two- and three-story brick or stone business blocks housing all types of commercial uses by 1900. Significant among these were the banks, the locally-owned financial institutions which played a critical role in enabling an industrial community such as Alliance to grow and prosper. The prosperity of local banks and manufacturers in Alliance was closely linked, largely because of the high degree of participation among industry leaders in the ownership and management of the banks.

The Alliance Bank Company was founded in 1872, one year after the location of the Morgan Engineering Company in Alliance set the community on the road to prosperity. The bank, which stressed its service to industry, prospered along with the community. For some 40 years, the Alliance Bank occupied a prominent location in a three-story Italianate building near the public square. For a successful bank, this building must have seemed cramped and outdated in the years following the turn of the century. Downtown Alliance was beginning to appear more substantial, as taller commercial and apartment buildings were being built along Main Street. These included the Alliance Hardware Building, a five-story Jacobean-style commercial building, constructed in 1906. The city's oldest bank saw a need to build a new bank structure that would provide up-to-date facilities and reflect the status of the banking institution in the community. The result was the Alliance Bank Building, completed in 1914 as a six-story combined banking house and office building.

The combination of banking facility and office building is one that found great favor in the early 20^th century and remains popular today. This approach enabled the bank to create a monumental banking lobby on the first floor while providing rentable office space on the floors above. It was facilitated by advances in steel-frame construction which made tall buildings possible and by an increasing demand for downtown office space on small building lots. In the Alliance Bank Building, the bank occupied the basement and first floor, where a grand banking lobby was located, while each of the five upper floors provided office space for rent. Tenants included attorneys, doctors and dentists, real estate and life insurance companies, and the Alliance Chamber of Commerce, which remained in this building for some 50 years.

To design the building, the bank hired Lewis W. Thomas, an architect who may have been best known as the designer of the Canton Auditorium, built in 1903-04. Thomas also designed the Alliance City Hall, which was completed one year after the bank building, in 1915. For the Alliance Bank, Thomas drew upon classical motifs to design the building in a restrained Italian Renaissance Revival style. The rusticated stone and use of arched openings in the base of the building is particularly reminiscent of Italian Renaissance features. The upper facades group windows into a unified pier design which draws attention to the verticality of the building, which is crowned by the 6^th floor and cornice.

The design of the Alliance Bank was influenced by the popular revival of classical motifs in American architecture and the image of stability and conservatism presented by a classical idiom. During the pre-World War I period in Alliance, a number of significant buildings were constructed which also were designed with classical motifs. These included several of the city's most notable civic buildings constructed during the years from 1913 to 1917: Mount Union College buildings (1913, 1914), the Water Works facilities (1913, 1917), the Masonic Temple (1915), the Alliance City Hall (1915), the Alliance Post Office (1916) and the Alliance City Hospital (1917). The classical style was preferred by civic groups, public agencies, and many banks of the period who were seeking to convey an image of permanence and trust.

In the early 1920s, the Alliance Bank Company proposed a merger with the First National Bank, which had been established in 1887 as the city's second bank. The new bank would be known as the Alliance First National Bank. Upon merging in 1923, the combined resources of the two banks made Alliance First National the fourth-largest bank in Stark County and the largest bank outside of Canton. The status of the bank only increased in succeeding years, when it was estimated that it carried as much as 90% of the industrial loans of the community. During WW II, the bank held $2 million of defense loans for local industries, paving the way for an industrial revival of the 1950s.

The proposed merger of the Alliance Bank and the First National Bank during the early 1920s resulted in an expansion of the Alliance Bank Building. Prior to the execution of the merger, the Alliance Bank Company contracted with the premier bank architects of Cleveland, Walker and Weeks, to design a major new addition to its original 1914 building. Walker and Weeks skillfully blended a three-story addition to the rear of the bank, continuing the ground-level rustication and arch treatment that had so well defined the original structure. On the interior, the bank lobby became even more spacious, adding to the feeling of grandeur that this space contains. The addition was completed in 1923, the year that the merger was completed.

Building Description

The Alliance Bank Building consists of a six-story office building constructed in 1914 and a compatible three-story rear wing completed in 1923. Constructed of steel frame and brick, the bank was designed in a restrained Italian Renaissance Revival style. As an example of early 20^th century high-rise architecture, it displays a clearly defined base, middle and top distinguished by differing materials or projecting coursework.

The upper stories of the Alliance Bank are faced in sandstone-colored brick, while the ground floor and exposed basement are faced in sandstone. Distinctive features of the building include its main facade fenestration, white glazed terra cotta cornice and brackets, and rusticated sandstone first floor with round-and-segmental-arched window openings. Both the south and west facades are ornamented on this corner building, while north and east elevations are treated plainly.

The first floor of the main facade features a delicate round-arched central entrance with carved sandstone surround and keystone embellished with the carved face of a woman, now partially obscured by a metal canopy. Window openings to either side have been blocked with later brick infill. The significant west side elevation displays nine round-arched window openings resting on a projecting water table and flanked by segmental-arched windows at each end. Sandstone lintels are splayed. The 1923 addition by Walker and Weeks skillfully extended the fenestration pattern from six to ll bays at this level, blending the addition with the original structure. The exposed basement wall is smooth sandstone block, with square-cut window openings and decorative wrought iron grates.

Above the first floor, verticality is emphasized through a pier and spandrel design. Window openings on south and west elevations are set within raised brick surrounds that extend from the 2^nd floor to terminate above the 5^th floor in segmental arches with keystones. Above these windows, used to distinguish the top floor as the crown of the building, is a projecting white-glazed terra cotta sill course with ornamental scrolled brackets. The building is crowned with a projecting cornice with dentils and oversized brackets at corners, also of white glazed terra cotta. A brick parapet wall extends above the cornice.

The three-story 1923 addition uses the same buff-colored brick as the original building and continues the fenestration pattern of the upper floors. Windows have sandstone lintels and sills, rather than terra cotta, and the cornice displays a simple sandstone course. A notable feature of the addition is a large round-arched window on the north (rear) elevation. Deeply recessed, it is trimmed in wood with classical details.

The interior of the building consists of a first-floor banking lobby, basement vault area, office lobby, and upper-floor office space. These spaces are typical of combined bank and office buildings of the early 20^th century. The voluminous banking lobby extends from front to rear, with the large round-arched window illuminating the rear. The primary design feature of the space is the series of encased ceiling beams with cove moldings and classical floor-to-ceiling pilasters between window openings.

The existing fixtures in the lobby date from 1950, when the interior of the bank was updated from plans of the Bank Building and Equipment Corporation of St. Louis, Mo.

Fixtures include marble and aluminum teller windows and glass and aluminum partition railings. At the rear of the lobby is a revamped stair leading to the basement vault area, with aluminum railings. The original 1914 vault, built by the Diebold Safe and Lock Company of Canton, remains in place.

To the east of the front entry vestibule is the office building lobby, consisting of a pair of elevators and a stair connecting with all floors. The aluminum elevator doors with stylized bank logo date from the 1950 renovation. The original stairwell, with marble wainscoting and iron railing, remains intact.

The upper floors of the building were designed for office tenants, with office rooms located off of a corridor. Typical office features include wood baseboard, chair rail, picture rail, and window and door trim. Some walls and trim have been removed or replaced.