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Overview

Architects Morgan and Walls used a Neo-classical, templar vocabularly to suggest the substantial, established character of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank. A temple suggested cultivation, solidity and stability to audiences of the time, and this form was used by many banking institutions for their headquarters of the 1900-1920 period. As banks grew, they tended to outgrow the temple form, and architects looked for other suitable and more massive precedents, such as the Italian palazzo for larger, skyscraper headquarters. Templar confgurations were still used in bank headquarters of the 1920s, but were less common. Temple imagery, gradually modernized and removed of some ornamentation, was still employed for public buildings, particularly courthouses, well into the 1930s, as reflected in WPA Moderne architecture.

Building History

Isaias W. Hellman (1842-1920) served as the President of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank at this time, and he selected the busy firm of Morgan and Walls to design his new bank headquarters. In addition to Hellman, other bank officers in 1907 included: J.A. Graves, Vice-President, I.N. Van Nuys, Vice-President, T.E. Newlin, Vice-President, Charles Salyer, Cashier, Gustave Heiman, 1st Assistant Cashier, John Alton, Assistant Cashier. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1907, p. 488.)

This building functioned as a bank until the 1980s. It was later used for special events and as a filming location.

Building Notes

The Farmers and Merchants Bank Headquarters #3 had a neoclassical temple design intended to provide the bank with a look of venerability, honesty and dependability; it was two stories tall, with pediments located centrally on its two main facades (it occupied a corner location at 4th Street and Main Street). Paired, engaged columns, each with Corinthian capitals, "supported" the pediments. The exterior was divided into bay by Corinthian pilasters. The roof line featured an entablature and tall attic story. A long vaulted skylight--placed parallel to the long dimension--illuminated the rectangular interior.