First National Building

Built between 1927 and 1930, the ten-story First National Bank Building possesses significance as a local visual landmark and as Ann Arbor's tallest and most prestigious office building at the time of its construction. It is also important in architectural terms as a major Michigan (and Ann Arbor's only) example of the 1920s office tower with its steel-frame construction and non-load-bearing exterior walls displaying restrained and sophisticated, period--in this case, Italian Romanesque--detailing. Designed by Ann Arbor architects Fry and Kasurin, the building originally housed the First National Bank and eight floors of office space largely occupied by prominent professional firms. The First National Bank, established in 1863, was the oldest bank in Washtenaw County and the first 'national' bank chartered in Michigan and the twenty-second in the nation. In 1936 the bank merged with two other financial institutions and vacated the building. Subsequently the banking lobby was converted into retail and office space. The two-story main entrance was enclosed at this time and a new storefront constructed at the corner of the building. The building dominated the Ann Arbor skyline for over thirty years. Floodlights illuminated the tower during its early years making it a visual focal point of Ann Arbor. The building's height has been surpassed by other Ann Arbor structures, but the structure remains by a margin of three stories the tallest on Main Street. The significance of the First National Bank Building was given formal recognition by the 1973 Ann Arbor Historic Architecture Survey which identified the building as one of outstanding architectural value for the city. The First National Bank Building is significant as one of a number of office towers, usually containing banking rooms in their street levels, which were built in major Michigan cities such as Detroit, Lansing, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids in the 1925-1930 period. Most of these structures--including the First National Bank Building--with their blocky massing, craggy parapet treatments, vertical banks of windows, and restrained and elegant decorative schemes, seem to reflect the influence of the rejected Eitel Saarinen entry in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition. The building is also notable for its handsome arched, portal entrance to the banking room (now partly obliterated) and other Romanesque details. These seem to harken back to the 1925 Bankers Trust Company Building in Detroit, designed by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls of Detroit, and to York & Sawyer's Bowery Savings Bank on 42nd Street in New York City. The latter structure appears to be the grandfather of all such Romanesque banking structures. In the late 1920s Italian Romanesque became the fashionable style for Michigan banks. Some other imposing office towers and bank buildings in Michigan containing Italian Romanesque stylistic references are the 1927 Michigan National Bank (by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls) in Grand Rapids, the 1928-29 Peoples Bank in Holland, the 1928-29 Old-Merchants National Bank (now Security National Bank) in Battle Creek, and the 1929-31 Capital Bank (now Michigan National Tower) and 1931-32 Bank of Lansing in Lansing.

660 Woodward – First National Bank Building – Steel-frame twenty-four-story building faced in limestone (1920-22) – Albert Kahn, Inc., architect. The building’s plan is shaped to fit in a contorted site that zigzags through the middle of its block, emerging on Congress’ north side at the Bates intersection behind the Vinton Building. The facades fronting on Woodward and Cadillac Square at the building’s north end are sheathed in gray granite at the street-level base and in limestone above, while other facades are finished in buff brick. The three facades facing Woodward and Cadillac Square display massive Corinthian porticos in antis rising from above the street level up to the fifth-floor level – the porticos on the Cadillac Square and corner Woodward elevations fronting an arched-ceiling banking room (now under renovation). Above the porticos paired windows rise in vertical banks between broad and shallow piers up to a three-story high zone where, below a final story, metal panels replace the limestone spandrels. At the twenty-fourth (attic) floor, the window pairs are separated by decorative details, and there are cartouches marking the ends of each façade. An overscaled classical cornice with modillions and an arcoteria band along the roofline have been removed. A portion of the building is constructed over a parking garage that faces Bates Street and East Congress Street. Above the parking garage is office space. The roof is flat. The first floor of the building contains retail store space, while the upper stories were designed for a bank tenant as well as commercial offices. The First National Bank was established in 1863, shortly after the 1862 passage of the National Banking Act. A Second National Bank, founded shortly after First, with leading Detroit businessmen such as Christian H. Buhl, Eber Brock Ward, and James F. Joy as directors, merged with First National in 1914 as the First and Old Detroit National Bank. The bank occupied its new quarters in February 1922, then shortening its name to First National Bank. The bank went into receivership in 1933. 8. Statement of Significance Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing) [X] A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. [X] B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. [X] C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. [ ] D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply) Property is: [ ] A owed by a religious institution or used for religious purposes.