Alabama Penny Savings Bank

The Alabama Penny Savings Bank is a historic building built in 1913 at 310 18th Street North in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The building has also been known as the Pythian Temple. Alabama Penny Savings Bank was the first black-owned bank in Alabama and financed construction of homes and churches for thousands of local black citizens. The bank was founded in 1890 and was the second largest black bank in the United States in 1907.[2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[1]

Alabama Penny Savings Bank
Alabama Penny Savings Bank is located in Alabama
Alabama Penny Savings Bank
Location310 18th St. N, Birmingham, Alabama
Coordinates33°30′54″N 86°48′37″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1913
Built byWindham Construction Co.
ArchitectWallace A. Rayfield
Architectural styleCommercial style
Part ofFourth Avenue Historic District (ID82002041)
NRHP reference No.80004471[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMarch 10, 1980
Designated CPFebruary 11, 1982

History

Alabama Penny Savings Bank was founded by William Reuben Pettiford in 1890.[3] Branches of the bank were established in Selma, Anniston, and Montgomery. After Pettiford's death the bank merged and then closed in 1915.[4][3]

Architecture

The bank building is a six-story Commercial style building with a buff-colored brick exterior. "It has a strong vertical appearance, emphasized by its proportions and the unbroken rise of four vertical piers." It has a projecting cornice.[2]

The building is significant as "a distinctive local example of 1910s office building design". It was built by a local black construction company and may have been designed by black architect Wallace A. Rayfield, who designed many other buildings for the black community in Birmingham.[2][5]

It is also a contributing building in the Fourth Avenue Historic District.[2]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Alabama Penny Savings Bank / Pythian Temple". National Park Service. Retrieved July 25, 2019. With accompanying photo from 1977
  3. "Penny Savings Bank". October 5, 2017.
  4. "Penny Savings Bank of Birmingham".
  5. Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (March 2004). African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge. pp. 474–477. ISBN 978-1-135-95629-5. Knights of Pythian Temple Building (1913)


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