Federal-American National Bank
- Architects
- Jules Henri de Sibour Alfred Bossom
- Year
- 1925
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- the city beautiful
Formed by a 1923 bank merger, the Federal-American National Bank building in downtown Washington was designed in 1925 by Jules Henri de Sibour and Alfred Bossom in a Neoclassical idiom. Hamilton National Bank moved in after the 1933 banking crisis, and the National Bank of Washington later occupied the building; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
the building
Limestone facade. The exterior is faced in limestone with a Classical Revival front of large arched windows, engaged columns, and sculptural embellishment.
The banking room. Behind a bronze vestibule, the Renaissance Revival banking hall sits one level up on a raised main floor, reached by a marble entrance stair past a mezzanine, under an elaborate polychrome coffered ceiling with chandeliers and classical ornament — an unusual layout that left storefronts at street level below.
the style
Neoclassical on the exterior, but the banking room inside is Renaissance Revival — the pairing of a classical street front with an ornate coffered banking hall raised above ground-floor storefronts is the building's defining move.
More on Neoclassicalthe architect
Jules Henri de Sibour and Alfred C. Bossom co-designed the building; both were active architects of Washington's early-20th-century bank and office buildings.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
nearby
- Westory Building
- Second National Bank
- Church of the Epiphany
- Brownley Building
- Commercial National Bank
- Bond Building