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Overview

This small templar building operated as a bank for about a decade before being transformed into a drugstore. Its architect was Thornton Fitzhugh, an designer adept in the use of reinforced concrete. Fitzhugh emphasized the building's concrete frame, whose strength enabled the walls to be opened up significantly in front with large plate glass windows. He detailed the building with many ornamental elements derived from Greek temples, including its gabled portico supported by Doric columns and decorated with metopes and acroteria. Doric pilasters marked the vertical supports of the 57th Street elevation.

Building History

The Highland Park News indicated that the Bank of Highland Park had been opened and dedicated in its issue of 03/17/1906. (See "Bank of Highland Park," Highland Park News, 03/17/1906, p.1.) Thornton Fitzhugh (1864-1933), a resident of Highland Park, served as the architect of this small, Neo-Classical bank building. The Latvian immigrant pharmacist George A. Simmons (1895-1974) opened his Colonial Drugstore in the Bank of Highland Park building after World War I and operated it at this location for approximately 60 years. A replica of the Colonial Drugstore was built in the Heritage Square Museum at 3800 Homer Street in Los Angeles, CA.

PCAD id: 3901