Bills' Banks, Part Four

I've chosen to pair the two banks in this post, not for their proximity in location but for their proximity of design.   One was in Ripon and the other in Stevens Point, both were Romanesque in style.  In the Oshkosh Northwestern Weekly's biographical article about architect Waters of June 25, 1891 a Ripon bank is listed but not a bank in Stevens Point.  Among the many images found in the Waters archives of the Oshkosh Public Museum was a building of rough hewn stone with a pediment holding a set of small arched topped windows but no identification.  While researching the Ripon opera house I noticed in a photograph of the town square a similar building and concluded it was the Waters' designed bank listed in the newspaper. 

       

The bank in Ripon was the German National Bank which was built in 1891, its' construction unheralded by any of the Oshkosh press.  Constructed of rough hewn limestone it was perhaps thirty feet wide and two stories high.  On the ground floor to the left was the entrance; double doors with an arched transom, flanked by twin columns which supported a stone lintel and pediment and to the right of the doors was a large square window.  Above the first floor window were two windows and another set of smaller windows to the left just above the doors.  The stone work was of regular shaped blocks, either rectangular or square and laid in even courses.  With the onset of World War one the bank changed its' name to the First National Bank and replaced the building in the early 1920's with a large Art Deco Style edifice.

The mystery of the unidentified bank remained. I had no idea where to look but searched old images from cities around the state, old postcards of Stevens Point brought an answer when I spotted the building in a picture of Main Street.  The accompanying explanation designated the building as the Citizens National Bank, built in 1895.  The bank was a  tour de force of Romanesque Style architecture with retail space in the basement and two floors above for banking and office use.  The first floor sat on a high foundation and the front elevation was dominated by two features; to the left a large arched window and at the right the front door.  The entrance was gained by a short flight of steps and as with the Ripon bank there was a set double doors with an arched transom set in a portico with twin pillars on each side supporting brackets.  These brackets held up a stone lintel inscribed the the word "BANK" and above that  was a pediment rising past the windows of the second floor.  The fenestration of the second floor was like that of the Ripon bank with two large windows above the arched window of the first floor and two smaller windows above the door.  The second floor widows were double hung window with transoms, above the windows to the left were two square lights and three lights above the smaller windows to the right.  A pediment with a set of triplet window capped the facade.  The stone work was of regular shaped blocks, either square or rectangular not laid in even courses but in a random pattern.  Large stone lintels topped the openings of the second floor. In the 1907 book Along the Wisconsin River by A. Decker there was this quote, " Few banks in the country are housed in finer quarters, the elegant building it occupies being not an enduring monument to the business sagacity of its backers, but it is a rich and magnificent acquisition to the architectural splendor of the city."  The splendor of the architecture was appreciated only until 1921 when the facade was replaced by a neoclassical style front.

Bills' Banks, Part Three

With all the work Mr. Waters did in Neenah and Menasha it is no surprise that he designed a bank in each city.  The First National Bank of Neenah was founded in 1861 and was located on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Ceder Street, later known as Commercial Street.  A fire in 1883 destroyed the bank and the adjacent Pettibone Block, a replacement was soon in the works.  Architect Waters' plans not only provided ample space for the bank but there were three other retail spaces as well as office or residential rooms on the second floor.   The building was of the latest style and employed a variety of building materials and surface textures.  Along the Wisconsin Avenue side were two store front and a stairway to the upper floor.  At the top of the structure was a brickwork cornice and a large pediment centered in the wall.  The bank itself occupied the corner space.  A chamfered corner held the front door which was flaked by two columns supporting a segment pediment.  Above the door was a set of double windows and beyond that, a set of small double windows set in a diminutive tower capped by a hipped peaked roof.  By the 1930's it no longer fit the needs of the bank and was replaced with a neoclassic style building.  

The First National Bank of Menasha was established in 1887 and was by January 1 of 1888 doing business from a William Waters designed building.  The bank was on Main Street, located on the square and faced north.  Constructed of limestone and red pressed brick it had two entrances with large transoms on either side of an imposing arched window.   Given the situation of the building the windows permitted a great deal of light to fill the lobby.   Rough hewn limestone was used for the foundation, lintels and trim while the remainder of the building was red brick.  There were four large window across the second floor and above them were panels of decorative brick flanking a large stone inscribed with the word "Bank".  Menasha's semi-centennial souvenir booklet publish in 1893 called the building one of the architectural ornaments of the city. 

On June 25,1891 the Oshkosh Northwestern Weekly newspaper published a lengthy biography of William Waters, including a list of his many accomplishments.  Banks in both Neenah and Menasha were part of that list.  There is also in the William Waters' archives of the Oshkosh Public Museum a photograph of the Menasha bank. 

Bills' Banks, Part Two

It was a bank in Appleton that gave William Waters his first opportunity to design a bank building.  The history of early Appleton banking owes a great deal to David Smith, the subject of a post from July 9th, 2013.  Mr Smith founded The Bank of Appleton which would later become the First National Bank, he would also go on to start the Manufactures Bank.  The First National Bank by 1871 was a well established institution and required more appropriate offices.  An article in The Oshkosh City Times of September 20, 1871 stated that architect Waters was drawing plans for a new bank in Appleton which was to be 22' x 80' and two stories high, of brick and stone.  The new building was located on the southwest corner of College Avenue and Appleton Street.  The bank was of a classical style with the front elevation having four segmented pilaster supporting a frieze inscribed with the word "Bank".  Between the center pilasters was an arched opening with double doors and transom flanked by large arched windows.  Above the frieze were three window between corner pilaster which supported brackets under a cornice, each window was adorned with an ornate window crown.  Beyond the cornice were posts corresponding to the pilasters of the first floor with parapets between.  

The bank remained there until 1932 when  a new structure was built across the street.  A jewelry store was the first post bank occupant, followed by a myriad of tenants and ill conceived renovations.  In recent times the building has under gone another remodeling more in keeping with the original style.  Mr. Waters next Appleton bank was The Manufacturers Bank, yet another financial enterprise of David Smith.  There were no newspaper announcements to herald the banks construction, just an old unidentified photograph to show that William Waters drew the plans among those of the Oshkosh Public Museum archives.  While looking through old postcards of Appleton I spotted the building on a card of the intersection of College and Morrison Street, further research relieved that it was The Manufactures Bank.  The bank was doing business from 1871 until 1885 when it merged with Commercial National Bank.  The building then become the home of the Crescent Press, which later merged with the Appleton Post.  A verity businesses occupied the building until it was razed

The last of Mr. Waters' Appleton bank building was by far the largest and most elegant.  A notice appeared in the Oshkosh Weekly Northwestern of May 19, 1881 telling of the many projects the architect was working on.  In Appleton there was listed a building for a newly organized bank, of brick, sixty by ninety feet, three stories high with the top floor to finished off as a Masonic Hall.   The cost was to be $15,000 with the vault costing several thousand more.  The bank was the Commercial National Bank which was located on the southwest corner of College Avenue and Oneida Street.  The brick used in its' construction was a cream color and there were bands and accents of darker brick.  In addition to the bank there were two retail space on the first floor.  Access to the upper floors was gained by way of two stairways, one on the north side of the building and the other on the east side.  The bank entrance was at the base of a chamfered corner which rose two more stories to a set of small triplet windows crowned by date inscribed pediment, such as those seen on other Waters' buildings.  The building was a fixture at that location until a winters' night in 1928 when it burned to the ground.     

Bills' Banks, Part One

Through out his career, William Waters designed sixteen bank buildings, some of which have already been mentioned in this forum and all will be reviewed in the next few posts.  A quick litany would list five banks in Oshkosh, although one was not built solely as a bank, three in Appleton and one each in Neenah, Menasha, Ripon, Waupaca, Shawano, Marshfield, Stevens Point, Merrill and Phillips.  Oshkosh was Mr.Waters' home base so it's natural that the bulk of his banks would be located there.  The great fire of 1875 brought a commission from H. B. Jackson for a building on Main Street.  Waters employed a template that proved very successful; two store fronts separated by a stairway to the second floors' offices or apartments.  Although the building was not specifically designed as a bank one half was occupied by the Commercial Bank and the other by Wilson Hardware Company and the building is still there on Main Street in Oshkosh.  Another post fire structure which was designed for the purpose of banking was the Union Bank on the northwest corner of High and Main Streets.  At the time it was built it was regarded by some as one of the most beautiful and functional banking structures.  It is more fully reported upon in a post "After the Fire", from September 8, 2010.   

Architect Waters' next Oshkosh house of finance was built just across the street from the Union Bank, on the southwest corner of High and Main Streets.  By 1882 the Commercial Bank had out grown its' store front quarters on Main Street, a new, larger, modern and impressive building was called for.  The architect did not disappoint.  The two story edifice of rough hewn lime stone gave the impression of solidity and strength.  On the ground floor along the north elevation were four openings with jack arch lintels three of which were windows and the forth was access to the stairway to the upper floor.  The chamfered corner of the bank held the front entrance, two doors were centered between two columns supporting a lime stone pediment. Above the entrance was a large window and beyond that was a set of small triplet windows crowned by a pediment inscribed with the date of construction.  Mr. Waters used this chamfered corner design in several other building.  The east elevation was small.  On  the ground floor was a set of double windows and two single windows on the floor above.  About the top of the walls was a cornice of three smooth lime stone blocks each stepped a little further out than the last.  The very top of the walls were finished with three courses of lime stone block and cap stones.  

The building is still there yet greatly altered, the windows along the north side had been closed up and memorial plaques to war dead installed.  Gone too was the front entrance, replaced by large display windows and large window on the second floor.

Two more banks were to come from the drawing board of William Waters.  In 1904 he planned the the New German American Bank and seven years later the State Bank of Oshkosh.  A more in depth story of these two is to be found in the post "A Tale of Two Banks" of June 6, 2010.

Mac Kinnon's Menasha Mansion

D. T. H. Mac Kinnon was a capitalist, entrepreneur and inventor.  Among his business ventures were a pulley factory, excelsior mill for which he invented a more efficient knife and paper mills.  Duncan was born in 1852 in England, the son of Capt. Lauchlan Mac Kinnon of the Royal Navy.  Captain Mac Kinnon met former Wisconsin territorial  governor, James Doty in 1849 while in Washington D. C. and traveled with him to Menasha. The captain loaned Doty money with the governor's land holdings as security.  The upshot of it all this was the governor defaulted and Mac Kinnon acquired land in Menasha.  In time the captains sons Falkland and Duncan came to this county and were managing things in Wisconsin.   Falkland moved on to Wausau and then Wisconsin Rapids and Duncan made his fortune in Menasha.  

By 1898 Mr. Mac Kinnon wanted a fine home.  Like many other wealthy Menashans  he sought the services of William Waters to be his architect.  But unlike others, Mr. Mac Kinnon didn't build his house on East Forest Avenue in Neenah, instead he chose the corner of First and Milwaukee Streets just north of the business district.  Architect Waters designed a massive twenty four room Queen Anne Style house with large bay windows, irregular fenestration and high roof with many dormers. When finished in 1899 there were  front and back parlors, music room, dining room, bath and kitchen on the first floor.  On the second floor were seven bedrooms, sewing room and three bathrooms, the third floor was a ballroom.   It was a late Queen Anne Style and had it been constructed of stone it may have looked like a French chateau.  It must have been truly magnificent when new but like so many large, grand houses it was costly to maintain.  It was converted to The Sunset Haven Nursing home, fire escapes where added and it was clad with aluminum siding which altered it's once grand appearance to shabby.

One Mystery Solved

Many years ago my son, then four years old and I drove from Waukesha to Oshkosh to keep an appointment I'd made with the archivist of the Oshkosh Public Museum to view the file on William Waters. Once there, Tommy occupied himself with some toys and I donned a pair of white cotton gloves and perused the contents of the Waters' file. Among the materials were some black, photo cover pages as if from a disassembled album.  Most of the buildings pictured there were familiar to me but some were not.  I arraigned with the archivist, Mr. Scott Cross for copies of the mystery buildings and since that time I've searched for their identity, with some success.  Recently I conducted an online search and was directed to The Old Third Ward Association, in Appleton.  There were pictured there, many houses designed by architect Waters familiar to me but one address was not.  I closely examined the image and read the paragraph about the house.  I recognized it as one the last buildings I had yet to identify.

It was the home of George Gerry an Appleton lumber dealer.  Mr. Gerry was born in Canada in 1840 and was the owner of Gerry Lumber.  In 1882 he commissioned William Waters to design his dwelling.  It was situated on a corner and  fronted on Cherry St. which later became Memorial Dr.  The front door was on a diminutive front porch with large ornately turned posts with a window over it on the second floor.  To the left, around the corner was another entrance, perhaps to an office and even further along the side of the house was one more door.  To the right of the front door were two windows and two windows above with a set of small twin windows in the gable.   On the right side of the house was a large bay window.  The interior walls were frescoes done by J. Frank Waldo who often worked with Mr. Waters, based on that connection the Third Ward Association correctly concluded that William Waters was the architect.  The house was moved about one hundred feet east from its' original location in order to make way for a row of multiple family houses.  What was once the front of the house became the side of the house, the front porch was removed and the door covered over.  Gone too was the "office door" and what had been a side entrance was made to be the front door, other alteration occurred as well. The barn at the back of the house was converted into a dwelling.  

Buildings of the North, Part Three

Ashland Wisconsin in the late nineteenth century was a robust and growing city with many large impressive buildings.  Structures of three or four stories were not uncommon, one such building was the Bristol Block.  Built in 1894 by business partners E. J. Born and T. J. Bristol the building bore Mr. Bristol's name and housed the jewelry store of Mr. Born, of which Mr. Bristol held a half interest.  A full description of the store and building was published in the Ashland Daily Press - Annual Edition,1894 and was said to have some of the finest offices in the city, on the second floor.  The article failed to mention the architect and the sole proof of William Waters' authorship of the plans was a photograph of the structure found in a portfolio of his work at the archives of the Oshkosh Public Museum.  Mr. Waters had designed many buildings using the lime stone quarried in Oshkosh and the brown stone of the north was little different.

The Bristol Block like most of the stone structures in Ashland was built of that native brown stone, quarried near by.  It was four stories high, perhaps one the tallest commercial building to come from Waters' drawing board and had two retail spaces on the ground floor, separated by a stairway to the upper floors.  The second floor at center had a set of double windows and balcony and above that another balcony and a set of triplet windows on the third level, these were flanked by bay windows.  The top floor was perhaps a work shop and had two sets of nine small windows on either side of an arch at the center divided into thirteen windows.  A variety of businesses had occupied the building's first floor: a jewelry store. haberdashery and a drug store.  Lawyers, a seamstress and the telephone exchange had all found a place on the upper floors.  Some years ago a bank purchased the building, refurbishing the office space to their use and as rental space.

P. S.   Mr. Waters was also cited as the architect of two schools in Ashland.  It is unclear which two were of his design but they were likely the two commissioned by the school board in 1872 and built that same year. All other Ashland schools of the nineteenth century were the work of Henry Wildhagen or the firm of Conover and Porter.