The People's Federal Savings and Loan Association is a historic bank building at 101 East Court Street in
Sidney, Ohio
Sidney is a city in Shelby County, Ohio, located approximately 36 mi (58 km) north of Dayton and 100 mi (161 km) south of Toledo. The population was 20,421 at the time of the 2020 census. It is named after English poet Phili ...
, designed by Chicago architect
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...
. It was designed and built in 1917 for use by Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association, which still operates out of it. It is one of a handful of banks designed by Sullivan between 1908 and 1919 for small communities in the central United States. The building is a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.
Description and history
People's Federal Savings and Loan Association is located at 101 East Court Street on the corner of South Ohio Street in Sidney across from the Spot restaurant. It lies also across the street from the
Gothic revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
Monumental Building and the
Second Empire Second Empire may refer to:
* Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783
* Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396)
* Second French Empire (1852–1870)
** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...
-style
Shelby County Courthouse Shelby County Courthouse may refer to:
* Shelby County Courthouse (Illinois), Shelbyville, Illinois
* Shelby County Courthouse (Indiana), Shelbyville, Indiana
* Shelby County Courthouse (Iowa)
The Shelby County Courthouse in Harlan, Iowa, Unite ...
. Numerous colors adorn the building, beginning with the
corbel
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
s of multicolored
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
, which are placed over the front windows. A dominant
Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
archway forms the main entrance, set in a building base of black marble and amid walls of strong reds. Other parts of the walls are pierced by numerous windows featuring blue, green, and purple glasswork. The design is the result of Sullivan's architectural ideal: simple structurally but ornately decorated in their details.
[Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. ]St. Clair Shores
St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ce ...
: Somerset, 1999, 1273.
The Sidney People's Federal Savings and Loan Association was one of a series of commissions that architect Louis Sullivan took on late in his career. These commissions resulted in a collection of bank buildings that have been termed "jewel boxes" for their modest size and ornate appearance. According to one account of the creation of Sullivan's design, he produced a sketch of it after two days of observing the empty lot where it was to stand. The sketch was at first rejected by the bank directors, who expressed a desire for a more conventional design with Classical features. Sullivan observed that they could have hired any of "a thousand architects to design a classic bank", but that only he could produce this type of design. The building was completed for $1,000 less than Sullivan's estimated cost.
Other Louis Sullivan "jewel boxes"
*
Farmers and Merchants Bank,
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
(1919)
*
Henry Adams Building
The Henry Adams Building, also known as the Land and Loan Office Building, is a historic building in Algona, Iowa, United States. It was designed by Louis Sullivan in 1912.
Although it was not designed as a bank, and has never served as such, the ...
,
Algona, Iowa
Algona is the county seat of Kossuth County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,487 at the 2020 census. Ambrose A. Call State Park is located two miles southwest of the city.
History
Algona was founded in 1854 and was named after the A ...
(1913)
*
Home Building Association Company,
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
(1915)
*
Merchants' National Bank,
Grinnell, Iowa
Grinnell is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,564 at the time of the 2020 census. It is best known for being the home of Grinnell College.
History
Grinnell was founded by settlers from New England who were ...
(1914)
*
National Farmer's Bank,
Owatonna,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
(1908)
*
Peoples Savings Bank,
Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. ...
,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
(1912)
*
Purdue State Bank
The Purdue State Bank Building is a historic structure in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, designed by American architect and Frank Lloyd Wright's mentor Louis Sullivan. Completed in 1914, the bank is the smallest and least expensive of Sull ...
,
West Lafayette
West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister c ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
(1914)
See also
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Ohio
This is a List of National Historic Landmarks in Ohio and other landmarks of equivalent landmark status in the state. The United States' National Historic Landmark (NHL) program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and reco ...
References
External links
People's Federal Savings and Loan Association website
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Shelby County, Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Shelby County, Ohio
Sidney, Ohio
National Historic Landmarks in Ohio
Commercial buildings completed in 1917
Louis Sullivan buildings
Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
Art Nouveau architecture in Ohio
Art Nouveau commercial buildings