Bankers Trust Company Building

Steel-frame two-story bank building faced in terra cotta (1925). Wirt Rowland, chief designer, Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, architects. A small building with facades on both Congress and Shelby and an angled entry facing the intersection, Bankers Trust displays a highly elaborate Italian Romanesque decorative scheme fashioned of buff-color terra cotta above a low buff granite base. The building is finished with massive arches containing windows in both facades. Flanking the arched corner entrance are dark green marble columns supporting lions holding shields. The building has a flat roof. The original bronze window frames remain in place. In two of the original windows, original green marble panels are still in place in the center of the windows. The low second story is finished with an arcaded treatment that uses columns in a variety of designs. The columns, their capitals, the wall surfaces and cornice above and the wall behind the arcade are resplendent in detailing that leaves no surface there uncovered. The upper story windows that occupy the central pair of arches aligned over the arches below contain three-over-three original metal windows. The arches above the windows are also blind, filled with elaborate carving. The corner doorway once featured a revolving door, now removed, but the elaborate bronze outer door remains. The interior has been rebuilt various times as uses changed from the bank to a brokerage, and then a McDonalds during the early 1990s. It is currently used as a nightclub. The current owner recently added bronze lettering over the doorway, "Bankers Trust Company," as a tribute to the historic past of the building.

220 West Congress - Noncontributing in its present exterior finish - Steel-frame five-story brick office building. Rectangular in plan, this former glove factory was completely refaced and renovated in the 1970s and no historic finishes are evident. Blue and cream-colored metal panels cover the street facade, with dark plate glass windows aligned between the panels and a recessed entrance.

243 West Congress - Marquette Building - Steel-frame ten-story brick and terra cotta commercial office building. (1906, 1916). It fronts 150 feet on Congress Street and 120 feet on Washington Blvd. Large windows on all four sides of the building allowed light and air for work purposes. The building is faced with red brick, and even retains its original first floor brickwork. A bulkhead of cast stone runs around the base of the building, and at the end of piers it is formed into column bases and plinths. A running band of beige terra cotta divides the second and third floors as well as the third and fourth floors. It is apparent that a running band or cornice was removed from between the eighth and ninth floors. The tenth-floor windows have round-heads and terra-cotta keystones. The windows are all two-over-two aluminum replacement windows. All the windows have a sill of white terra cotta. The cornice is a simple band of terra cotta. The roof is flat. Above the entrance