The Bradenton Bank and Trust Company, built during the height of the Florida land boom and now known as the Professional Building, is a historic 7-story commercial building located at 1023 Manatee Avenue West, just east of the Manatee County Courthouse in

Bradenton Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries A settlement established by Maroons or escaped sl ...

Manatee County, Florida Manatee County is a county in the Central Florida portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port- Sarasota- Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its count ...

, United States.

History

Designed in the Commercial or Chicago School style of architecture with

Classical Revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

touches, it features the three tiers typical of the Commercial style: an ornate main floor exterior, plain middle story exteriors and a not quite as plain top floor crowned with a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. When the building opened on February 22, 1926, the bank occupied the ground floor and the upper floors were occupied by about 90 commercial tenants. By 1929, however, there were only 20 tenants left. The bank failed in 1933 and the ground floor became retail space and gradually the upper floors were reoccupied by doctors, dentists, lawyers and accountants and other professionals. Sharp's Drug Store was a longtime occupant of the ground floor. It was the tallest commercial building in Manatee County from completion until 1986 when the 12-story Bradenton Financial Center surpassed it. Today the building is owned by the law firm which occupies most of its space. The ground floor exterior has been restored to its original appearance. It is included in a walking tour of downtown Bradenton and is included in the city's master list of historic buildings.

References

{{Bradenton, Florida Chicago school architecture in Florida Neoclassical architecture in Florida Commercial buildings completed in 1926 Buildings and structures in Manatee County, Florida Bradenton, Florida 1926 establishments in Florida