Monastery at Large

Bowery Savings Bank (1895) – New York

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Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White. Bowery Savings Bank (1895). New York.1 2 3 4 5 6

The Bowery Savings Bank is a significant early work in the Classical Revival style, credited to Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White.

Following their monumental buildings of classical inspiration for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, the firm entirely embraced Roman and Renaissance influence in their designs, ushering in the Beaux Arts movement that dominated American architecture for decades.

By the time of White’s death in 1906, the firm’s work had become increasingly derivative and dreary, but this structure was designed early enough to retain some of their initial flair for quirkiness and originality: the front doors set slightly off-center within a recessed arch, for instance.

Built in the shape of an L with granite and Indiana limestone, the Bowery Savings Bank has two entrances, neither of which resembles the other — a larger side entrance on Grand Street, and the smaller, more interesting Bowery side shown here.

It appears the building was largely designed by Edward P. York, then White’s assistant, who also supervised its construction. York would later become a founding partner in the architectural firm of York & Sawyer.7

Ever the playboy, in the mid to late 1890s, White increasingly delegated his work to others while he indulged in a lavish lifestyle of excess and consumption — it didn’t end well for him.

Elevation8

References

  1. A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White 1879-1915, Volume 1. New York: The Architectural Book Publishing Co. (1915). ↩︎
  2. “The Bowery Savings Bank’s New Building.” New-York Daily Tribune, February 14, 1893, p. 11. ↩︎
  3. “Another Handsome Bank Building.” New-York Daily Tribune, February 15, 1893, p. 3. ↩︎
  4. “Financial Announcements.” The New-York Times, June 24, 1894, p. 14. ↩︎
  5. “Bowery Bank’s New Building.” The World (New York), June 27, 1894, p. 6. ↩︎
  6. “Bowery Savings Opens New Home”. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York), June 22, 1923, p. 22. ↩︎
  7. Bowery Savings Bank Building – Landmarks Preservation Commission ↩︎
  8. A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White 1879-1915, Volume 1. New York: The Architectural Book Publishing Co. (1915). ↩︎

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