The Centennial National Bank is a historic building in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Designed by noted Philadelphia architect
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...
and significant in his artistic development, it was built in 1876 as the headquarters of the eponymous bank that would be the
fiscal agent
A fiscal agent, fiscal sponsor, or financial agent is a proxy that manages fiscal matters on behalf of another party. A fiscal agent may assist in the redemption of bonds or coupons at maturity, disbursing dividends, and handling tax issues. For ex ...
of the
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
. The building housed a branch of the
First Pennsylvania Bank First Pennsylvania Bank was a bank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1782, it was for centuries the oldest bank in the United States until it was acquired by CoreStates Financial Corporation in 1989.
In the 1970s, First Pennsylvania o ...
from 1956 until
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...
purchased it . Drexel renovated it between 2000-2002 and now uses it as an alumni center. The Centennial National Bank, described as "one of the best pieces of architecture in West Philadelphia,"
was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1971.
History
The Centennial National Bank opened for business in January 1876, shortly before its permanent building was constructed the same year. Architect Frank Furness, who had just parted ways with business partner
George Hewitt, received the commission due to personal connections with the directors.
The bank obtained a monopoly over handling ticket receipts and currency exchanges for the Centennial Exposition, which opened on the
Fourth of July
Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...
to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of American independence, and operated a branch on the fairgrounds. It continued to operate as the only national bank in
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...
for decades, and the building remained in use as a bank branch until it was vacated by the First Pennsylvania Bank between 1965 and 1971.
Drexel University purchased the building , using it primarily as office space and later to house university's alumni center.
Design and construction
The bank was chartered on January 19, 1876, to finance Philadelphia's coming-out on the world stage, the Centennial Exposition. The Exposition was the first
World's Fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
held in North America and its opening day, July 4, coincided with the 100-year of American independence. Its first president was
Clarence Howard Clark, Sr.
Clarence Howard Clark Sr. (April 19, 1833 – 1906) was an influential banker, land owner, and developer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ten years after his death, ''The New York Times'' called him one of the city's "most prominent men of his day. ...
, a financier and West Philadelphia resident and developer.
Clark hired Frank Furness, whom he had met in
Unitarian circles, to design the bank's headquarters building.
(Furness likely also knew bank co-founder
Samuel Shipley.
) He had worked previously on one of his most successful bank designs, the
Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company, with his partner George Hewitt. However, the partnership dissolved in the fall of 1875, leaving the firm without a mechanical engineer. The Centennial Bank was the first major project Furness took on afterward.
Strategically located at the corner of 32nd and Market streets, a building on the site would terminate the line of sight along the diagonal Lancaster Avenue, which led to the Exhibition grounds in West
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...
. This is reflected in the entrance Furness designed, which cuts the corner to face Lancaster.
Market Street also intersected with Woodland Avenue here, though both Woodland and Lancaster are no longer city streets.
The site was perfectly positioned to attract fair-goers' business, as Furness anticipated. By April 1876, construction was complete and the building was in operation.
Use as a bank
During the Centennial Exposition, a branch operated on the fairgrounds and handled the collection and accounting of ticket revenues, as well as currency exchange.
By 1900, the bank remained the only national bank in West Philadelphia, posted profits of $274,392 (), and was directed by some of Philadelphia's "best known and most reputable business men.
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]
In 1956, the building came to be occupied by the
First Pennsylvania Banking and Trust Company as its "Centennial Branch."
First Pennsylvania was still listed as the owner in 1965
but by 1971, the building stood vacant and was controlled by the
Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) was created by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Urban Redevelopment Law of 1945. Until the Fall of 2011 it was known as the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia (RDA).
Function
The ...
.
Reuse
The building was acquired by Drexel University around "the time of the
Bicentennial __NOTOC__
A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to:
Europe
*French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...
," and was reported in 1986 to be "a dingy maze of Drexel University administrative offices" for which Drexel was trying to find renovation funding. The plan was to turn it into a museum.
Instead, after a renovation, it was rededicated in 2002 as the "Paul Peck Alumni Center," to house the university's alumni relations center, meeting spaces, and an art gallery showing pieces from the university art collection.
Drexel used the bank in 2012 to host an exhibit of Frank Furness' commercial architecture.
Architecture
The Centennial National Bank's
Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...
design by Frank Furness is considered, "a good example of his developing style," with the exterior retaining its original character though it has been altered.
The design is a step in Furness' development of an independent style, a departure from earlier works which were in the British-influenced
High Victorian Gothic
High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right.
Promo ...
style.
Shortly after construction, the building was described in an architectural magazine:
The method for making the "brilliant glass tiles" referred was invented by Furness himself. Glass was painted on the inward side, backed by a layer of
gold leaf
Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
and then a layer of
tin foil
Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil made of tin. Tin foil was superseded after World War II by cheaper and more durable aluminium foil, which is still referred to as "tin foil" in many regions (an example of a misnomer).
History
...
to hold the gold in place. This created colorfully reflective glass often used to suggest nature, as in floral ornamentation. In addition to the academy and the Centennial National, Furness used them in his
Brazilian Court at the Centennial Exhibition, but not thereafter. Similar attempts at ornamental glass making were being carried on during the mid-1870s by
John LaFarge
John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics.
La Farge is best known for ...
and
Louis Tiffany.
Alterations
![Paulpeckalumnicenter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Paulpeckalumnicenter.jpg)
Its interior was modified in 1893 and again in 1899, when Philadelphia architect
Frank Miles Day
Frank Miles Day (April 5, 1861 – June 15, 1918) was a Philadelphia-based architect who specialized in residences and academic buildings.
Career
In 1883, he graduated from the Towne School of the University of Pennsylvania, and traveled to Europe ...
built a rear addition that followed Furness's style.
In 1956 its single floor was split in two, and the exterior was simplified, as designed by architect Bud Ross.
The building was renovated in 2000-02 (under Voith & Mactavish Architects
) to make it an alumni center for Drexel University, at a cost of $4 million,
.
Recognition
The bank was included in the
Historic American Buildings Survey
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
in 1965, as part of the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
's
Mission 66
Mission 66 was a United States National Park Service ten-year program that was intended to dramatically expand Park Service visitor services by 1966, in time for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Park Service.
When the National P ...
program.
It was listed on the
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places The Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (PRHP) is a register of historic places by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Buildings, structures, sites, objects, interiors and districts can be added to the list.
Criteria
According to the Phila ...
on January 4, 1966, and then on the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 1971.
The National Register nomination cited the building's architectural and commercial significance, calling it "a significant work of architecture, one of the major surviving works of Frank Furness, one of the major examples of Victorian architecture in Philadelphia and one of the best pieces of architecture in West Philadelphia."
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Notes
References
{{Frank Furness
Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
Drexel University
Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia
Frank Furness buildings
Commercial buildings completed in 1876
Centennial Exposition
University City, Philadelphia
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places