Postcards from the South: Hillyer Bank and Trust Building – Atlanta

This postcard depicts the Hillyer Bank and Trust Building in Atlanta, designed by Hentz & Reid^{1 2} and completed in 1912.³

Published by I.F. Co. of Atlanta, the card was postmarked in Atlanta on August 3, 1913, and addressed to Mrs. J.H. Harris of McCredie, Missouri.

The following note is written on the back:

“I am mighty glad to hear from you, will answer soon

This is a lonesome Sunday wish I could be with you all

Brother“

Location of Hillyer Bank and Trust Building

The Hillyer Building is one of the earliest Atlanta structures designed by Neel Reid, and one of Norrman, Hentz & Reid‘s first projects following the suicide of G.L. Norrman in November 1909.

Reed designed the eight-story, steel-framed building⁴ in the ubiquitous Beaux-Arts style, which is appropriate because he apparently studied, briefly, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The details are sketchy, though.^{5 6}

I doubt anyone at the école would have advised him to design such an absurdly tall and skinny tower, or as the AIA Guide to Architecture put it: “conceivably one of the narrowest highrise office buildings in the United States.”⁷

The streets of Downtown Atlanta are basically giant wind tunnels, and after seven decades, the building’s top five stories were removed in 1978,^{8 9 10 11} reportedly because they were “badly damaged by weather exposure.”^{12 13} Go figure.

Gallery

References

1. “Hillyer To Build Steel Skyscraper At 140 Peachtree”. The Atlanta Journal, July 13, 1910, p. 1. ↩︎
2. “New Hillyer Trust Company Building”. The Atlanta Journal, July 28, 1910, p. 5. ↩︎
3. “Hillyer Trust Offices Open”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 3, 1912, p. 7. ↩︎
4. “New Hillyer Trust Company Building”. The Atlanta Journal, July 28, 1910, p. 5. ↩︎
5. Kapetanakos, Stephanie Anna. The Architecture of Neel Reid: A Study of the Residential Architecture of Neel Reid in Atlanta. M.A., University of Georgia (1971), p. 2. ↩︎
6. Grady, James. Architecture of Neel Reid in Georgia. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press (1973). ↩︎
7. Gournay, Isabelle. AIA Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press (1993), p. 34. ↩︎
8. ibid. ↩︎
9. Allen, Frederick. “Wrecking Ball Awaits Four Old Atlanta Buildings”. The Atlanta Constitution, July 8, 1977, p. 6-A. ↩︎
10. Levin, Robin. “History returns downtown”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 8, 1986, p. B1. ↩︎
11. Percy, Dudley. “Historical society shows ‘commitment to Downtown’”. The Atlanta Constitution, May 19, 1988, p. 4B. ↩︎
12. Gournay, Isabelle. AIA Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press (1993), p. 34. ↩︎
13. Percy, Dudley. “Historical society shows ‘commitment to Downtown’”. The Atlanta Constitution, May 19, 1988, p. 4B. ↩︎