AKA: Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, Office Building, Long Beach, CA
Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - banks (buildings)
Designers: Curlett and Beelman, Architects (firm); McNeil Construction Company (firm); William Horace Austin Jr. (architect); Claud Wilbur Beelman (architect); Alexander Edward Curlett (architect); McNeil (building contractor)
Dates: constructed 1922-1923
2 stories
Farmers and Merchants Bank Office Tower, built in 1923, embodied the growth that Long Beach, CA, experienced in the first two decades of the twentieth century, becoming the city's first skyscraper in 1923; the building was long a preferred office address for professionals working in downtown Long Beach;
Curlett and Beelman used the Beaux-Arts Revival Style for the exterior of this large bank branch. The bank had two stories, the first floor having tall ceilings, the second being much lower. A colonnade of Ionic columns stretched the length of the exterior bending around its chamfered corner. Acroteria lined the eaves line all across the front facade.
PCAD id: 2205