1889 First National Bank Building: Richardsonian Romanesque Architecture

The 1889 First National Bank Building.

Corner of Main St. and Kansas St.

This building was constructed for the First National Bank in 1889 on the site of the bank's earlier wood building. It was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, a popular Romanesque Revival style initially developed by Henry Hobson Richardson. Architects and architectural firms throughout the country took up Richardson's ideas as they designed their own buildings for banks, local governments, civic institutions, churches, businesses, and homeowners.  Borrowing elements from Romanesque architecture of late medieval France and Spain, Richardson and other architects incorporated round arches, rusticated (rough) stone, columns with Romanesque-like capitals, and round towers or turrets into their designs.

Downtown Smith Center, c. 1900.

This building has had interior and exterior updates over the years and at least one historical renovation, and it has been entered into the National Register of Historic Places.

Main Entrance to the 1889 First
National Bank Building.

East end of the 1889 First National Bank Building.