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The Bank of California Building is a landmark building located at 815 2nd Avenue in Seattle, Washington. It is located mid-block adjoining the Exchange Building. It was built by the Bank of California (predecessor to the Union Bank of California) in 1924 and has been continually used as a bank ever since. It housed the offices for the Bank of California until 1973 when a new building, the Union Bank of California Center was built at the corner of 4th and Madison Streets. Ironically, this newer, larger building is no longer used as a bank and instead is occupied by a Bartell Drugs store. The original Bank of California Building was retained as a branch office until being sold to the Puget Sound Mutual Savings Bank in 1982 which was headquartered in the building until 1993 when through a series of mergers and acquisitions the bank became a branch of Key Bank, which it remains to present day. The Building is a rectangular two Story plus basement Reinforced concrete building faced with terra cotta meant to imitate stone. It features a sky-lit banking room that spans all floors and includes a mezzanine. It was designed in a "strict Italian Renaissance" style typical of many banks in the 1920s by John Graham & Company, one of Seattle's most prominent architectural firms. Graham would also design the building's aforementioned replacement in 1973. The Bank of California Building was designated a City of Seattle Landmark in 1987.〔(Landmarks Alphabetical Listing for B ), Individual Landmarks, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle. Accessed 6 December 2010.〕 ==History== The Bank of California, organized in San Francisco in 1864, came to Seattle in 1905 with the acquisition of the London and San Francisco Bank who had branches in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland, Oregon. The Bank of California became a national bank in 1910 and soon was one of the biggest banks west of the Mississippi River. By the early 1920s the bank had outgrown its small office at the Northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Columbia Street. In May 1923 the bank purchased the Epler Block located two doors north of their own from the Epler Estate for $160,000 with the intention of building a new bank building on the site.〔"New Bank Building to Go Up - Epler Block Changes Hands" ''Seattle Times'' 8 May 1923. Pg. 9.〕 The property had been purchased in 1882 by W.F. Epler who, following the Great Seattle fire, built a substantial four story brick and stone building on the lot that was completed in 1890.〔"An Old Landmark to Be Replaced by Modern Bank Building ()" ''Seattle Times'' 10 May 1923. Pg. 8.〕 The bank chose the John Graham firm to design a two story plus mezzanine concrete structure with a terra cotta facade that would cost around $200,000 but would actually cost $50,000 more. A completed architectural sketch of the building was published in the ''Seattle Times'' on September 25, 1923.〔"Graphic-Fiction Page" ''Seattle Times'' 25 Sept. 1923.〕 A preliminary and apparently innovative concept hatched during the building's designing was to incorporate customer parking in the building's basement. It is unknown whether this idea was actually implemented.〔"Bank to Build Home" ''Seattle Times'' 9 May 1923. Pg. 23.〕 Demolition of the Epler Block began in November 1923 and lasted for several months.〔"Modern Building to Replace Epler Block" ''Seattle Times'' 14 Oct. 1923. Pg. 18.〕 Construction began in early 1924 and by May of that year, the concrete structure was complete. The building officially opened to the public on August 25, 1924.〔 The bank continued to expand by opening offices in the Exchange Building (Seattle) and building a parking garage to the south. By the late 1960s, they were ready to expand and set out to construct the Union Bank of California Center, which covered an entire city block bound by Madison, Marion, Fourth and Fifth Avenues and would contain over of space for the bank, much more than the old building had.〔Lane, Polly "Bank of California to Build Downtown Office Building." ''Seattle Times'' 1 Jul. 1970. Pg. B3.〕 When the new bank opened in early 1974, the original building was retained as a branch office which prompted local banks to file suit claiming unfair competition, which was later overturned.〔Gay, Jerry "New Bank Building Opens" ''Seattle Times'' 7 Jan. 1974. Pg. A6.〕〔Laurence, Erwin () "Bank's Right to Two Offices Upheld By U.S. Appeals Court" ''Seattle Times'' 7 Feb. 1974. Pg. G6.〕 By 1983, Bank of California had left the building and it became the main office of the Savings Bank of Puget Sound, formerly the Puget Sound Mutual Savings Bank.〔"Savings Bank's Income Increases" ''Seattle Times'' 16 Jul. 1982. Pg. C11.〕 The savings bank was purchased by Puget Sound Bancorp of Tacoma in 1986 which in turn was acquired by KeyCorp in 1993.〔Lim, Paul J. "(Building - And Buying - A Name For Itself -- Key Bank Strives To Boost Visibility In Northwest )" ''Seattle Times'' 2 Mar. 1995. Retrieved December 8, 2010〕 The building has housed a Key Bank branch ever since. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bank of California Building (Seattle)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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