The Merchants' National Bank (1914) building is a historic commercial building located in

Grinnell, Iowa Grinnell ( ) is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,564 at the time of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. It is best known for being the home of Grinnell College, as well as being the location of the ...

. It is one of a series of small banks designed by

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 (architecture), Chicago ...

in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

between 1909 and 1919. All of the banks are built of brick and for this structure he employed various shades of brick, ranging in color from blue-black to golden brown, giving it an overall reddish brown appearance. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1976 for its architecture. and In 1991, it was listed as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the Grinnell Historic Commercial District.

Description and history

Merchants' National Bank was built in 1914 and had its grand opening on January the first, in 1915, along with the Purdue State Bank in Indiana, also designed by Sullivan. Structurally the building is a rectangular box, with a magnificent main facade and a windowed side facade. Although this building is smaller than either his Owatonna or

Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in u ...

banks, it appears just as monumental. This is due largely to the oversized

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that surrounds a circular window on the Fourth Street facade. Light is introduced into the interior by a series of stained glass windows that alternate with structural posts down the side of the building and through the colored glass skylight that comprises much of the ceiling. While the bank housed in the structure and its location, the small town of Grinnell, did not warrant wide national attention, yet the unveiling of the Louis Sullivan building was given national coverage in the architectural press of the day. The Merchants' Bank was featured in an eleven-page spread in The Western Architect's February 1916 edition. As he did in his banks in

and Sidney, Ohio, Sullivan used lions, or at least a grotesque, winged version of a lion, as figurative decoration. This creature is one of the very few figurative elements that can be found in the architect's designs. (The angels in his Transportation Building and the Bayard-Condict Building being other examples.) Some of the plans and even the designs of the ornament were done by Sullivan's draftsman Parker N. Berry, who was shortly thereafter to fall victim to the 1918

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

epidemic. In the 1970s or early 1980s, a city beautification project sponsored the planting of several trees in front of the bank. Gebhard calls this an "unbelievable decision" for the growing plants would obscure more and more of the amazing facade. These plantings can be easily seen in the gallery pictures, taken in 1985. These trees were removed as of 2013. In 2007, the city remodeled its downtown sidewalks and streets so the intersections of the square had the "Jewelbox" appearance to them. The city also put Planters at the four corners of the crossings which have the "Jewelbox" engraved in them. Between 2008 and 2009, one of the lions in front of the building was damaged. Both lions have now been replaced.

Images

Merchants National Bank entrance Grinnell IA.jpg, Merchants National Bank entrance with gold winged lions, Grinnell, IA LSGrinnell6.jpg, Main facade LSGrinnell0.jpg,

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LSGrinnell5.jpg, Over front entrance LSGrinnell3.jpg LSGrinnell1.jpg, Detail of cartouche LSGrinnell9.jpg, Sign over side door. LSGrinnell8.jpg, Door molding LSGrinnell10.jpg, windows

Other Louis Sullivan "jewel boxes"

* Farmers and Merchants Bank, Columbus,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

(1919) * Henry Adams Building, Algona, Iowa (1913) * Home Building Association Company, Newark,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

(1914) * National Farmer's Bank, Owatonna,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

(1908) * People's Federal Savings and Loan Association,

Sidney, Ohio Sidney is a city in Shelby County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 20,421 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is approximately north of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton and south of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo, and is a ...

(1918) * Peoples Savings Bank,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

(1912) * Purdue State Bank,

West Lafayette West Lafayette ( ) is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Wabash and Tippecanoe Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Tippecanoe Townships, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, approximately northwest of the state capit ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

(1914)

Sources

*Brooks, H. Allen, ''The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Contemporaries'', University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, 1972 *Elia, Mario Manieri, ''Louis Henry Sullivan'', Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton NY, 1996 *Gebhard, David & Gerald Mansheim, ''Building of Iowa'', Oxford University Press, New York, 1993 *Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, ''The Louis Sullivan Pilgrimage'', unpublished manuscript *Morrison, Hugh, ''Louis Sullivan: Prophet of Modern Architecture'', W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1963 *Twombly, Robert, ''Louis Sullivan: His Life and Work'', Elizabeth Sifton Books - Viking, New York, 1986 *Wilson, Richard Guy and Sidney K. Robinson, ''The Prairie School in Iowa'', Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1977

References

{{Louis Sullivan Commercial buildings completed in 1914 Louis Sullivan buildings National Historic Landmarks in Iowa Buildings and structures in Poweshiek County, Iowa Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Art Nouveau architecture in Iowa Art Nouveau commercial buildings National Register of Historic Places in Poweshiek County, Iowa Grinnell, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa

Description and history

Images

Other Louis Sullivan "jewel boxes"

See also

Sources

References