neighborhood bank buildings
During the first four decades of the 20th century, downtown banks constructed branch offices to serve customers living ever farther from the urban core. Others located their primary headquarters in these residential neighborhoods. The most distinctive building of this type is the South Side National Bank Building, at the corner of Grand and Gravois. The Art Deco-inspired stone building, unlike downtown bank buildings, was not limited in its development space and could erect an expansive, three-story base from which rises a seven-story office tower. The ground floor has a row of storefront windows; above is a monumental center bay, with two-story round-arched window. Ornamentation throughout is restrained and in shallow relief. (St. Louis, 1995)