Downtown – Havre de Grace, Maryland
The First National Bank commissioned William Lewis Plack to design this building. Plack was inspired by the Renaissance-revival style made popular at the 1882-1893 Chicago World’s Fair. More specifically, according the architect James T. Wollon, Jr., the building is an adaptation of an 18th-century English gatehouse or garden temple and the street façade may have been taken from the plates in “Magnum in Parvo,” a 1728 book of designs.The building was completed in 1908. The façade is of Port Deposit granite; each piece of stone was designed, cut and carved to fit in place, and is closest to English Revival. The cornice, made of pressed sheet copper with Renaissance detailing and terra cotta tiled roof are Romanesque Revival. (Historic Havre de Grace – Find a Property)
This handsome masonry building has banding of stone with different finish, corbels supporting a corbel table, and a stepped parapet. The stone coping along the side carries this detailing over the brick wall. A brick chimney stack rises to the rear possibly indicating an earlier use of this building.
Looking closely one can see that the brick building in the center is only a few feet deep to support the facade facing the street. There appears to be an active theater behind it, though shorter than the two-story facade.
This interesting building has a corner tower and turret. Also there is a parapet and walls made of patterned concrete block.
Legion Square
A memorial for the visit of Lafayette to Havre de Grace in the central downtown park.
As we prepared to leave Havre de Grace this house caught our attention. The specialty dormers in the conical roof, particularly caught our eye. As did the wall dormers and second floor bay window that was reflected in a large octagonal dormer.