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T H E
PACIFIC
NATIONAL
BANK
AN ARCHITECTURAL
HISTORY
RURIK
MASON
EKSTROM
PRESERVATION INSTITUTE NANTUCKET
1986
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_ I_ __ 1
THE PACIFIC NATIONAL BANK OF NANTUCKET
AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
R.M. EKSTROM THE PRESERVATION INSTITUTE SUMMER 1986
The purpose of this paper was to collect, coordinate and
edit as much information as was possible in determining the
Pacific National Bank building's original design and
construction in 1818 and the sequence of events that led to
its configuration of today. The history of the bank is well
documented in numerous publications sponsored by the bank
itself and several sources relating local history in
Nantucket. The institutional and social history of the bank
and its proprietors has not been particularly helpful in
determining the movement of walls, however. The information
that has been most helpful is in the form of letters and
memos that have occasionally bounced between the Nantucket
Historical Association and the bank officers of any
particular era, or research completed by the Historic
American Buildings Survey in 1972, or, most importantly,
physical evidence that was found in exploring the building
first hand. The assistance of Henry G. Kehlenbeck,
president of the bank since 1970, has been most helpful and
appreciated in this particular phase of data gathering. It
is also important to state, that the story is yet incomplete
in that certain sources of very important information were
unavailable at the time of this research. For future
studies it will prove invaluable to include, if possible,
some of this information.
In 1974, Julian Gallup Everett, an architectural historian
and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, spent
the summer in Nantucket completing a set of drawings that
were an interpretation of the bank's original layout and
later additions that covered its history up to his day. In
exploring the premises, Everett discovered such evidence in
the basement as old foundation walls and footprints of
masonry work that were very helpful in pinpointing the
original configuration of the building and the changes that
occurred years later. Photographs, as well as his access to
bank records were also very helpful in this work. In
compiling the information for this paper these important
drawings and more detailed notes unfortunately have not
been available. Some notes and memos from Everett to the
Bank have been obtained, however, as well as original
drawings of alterations done in 1925 and 1929. From these
and other sources it has been possible to recreate, as
accurately as possible, the story of the building known as
the Pacific National Bank.
Prior to 1818, the offices of the Bank had been located on
the east side of Federal Street between Main and Cambridge
in the converted residence of Josiah Barker. This property
had been obtained for the Bank in 1804, at the institution's
founding, with the stipulation that Mr. Barker find a new
place to live within two years. Unfortunately, this house
was one of many victims of the fire of 1846 which, long
after the Bank had moved, destroyed almost three hundred
buildings in Nantucket's downtown.
In 1818, it was decided by a meeting of directors and
shareholders that a new banking house would be constructed
reflecting the prosperity of the times and the greater needs
of an institution which had grown proportionately. At this
time the Bank was still under Massachusetts state charter
and was called the Nantucket Pacific Bank. The property at
the had of lower Main Street, or Market Square, had long
A
been known as "Hammett's Corner" and was under the
ownership of Dr. Oliver Bartlett. Shortly after deciding to
build, the bank bought this land from Dr. Bartlett for
$2,500.00 and directly moved the only house there to the
northeast corner of Coffin and Union Streets, which
incidentally acquired the stone steps of the original
banking house after the fire some years later.1
The architect, if any, is as yet unknown. As relatively few
professional architects were ever engaged in Nantucket
building, it is quite possible that the design work could
have been done by the builder or an interested and well read
citizen, but the quality and thoughtfulness of of this work
would seem to make this doubtful. An original cost estimate
does exist, quoting a finished price for the building at
$7,000 and listing all of the materials, laborand fittings,
including the vault, with an anticipated $1016.09 figured
2
for contingencies. The requirements for this new banking
house were for a brick and stone building of inherent
importance and quality that would accommodate the
institution's need for efficiency as well as the symbolic
imagery that should befit such a prominent element of the
Island's financial community. The end product still serves
as proof to the building's success.
The Bank's front facade, which looks to the east and down
lower Main Street towards the Wharf, exists today almost
exactly as it was built in 1818. It consists of a
symmetrical block of three bays and is topped by a shingle
hip roof. The primary material is brick, laid in flemish
bond, which is complimented by a heavy base of granite and
narrow bands of brownstone which wrap around the building at
window sill level on both of its two floors. The windows
are treated with inset panels in "Adamesque"3 manner of
applied arches on the first floor and simple rectangles on
the second. This detail is continued on the south elevation
which was originally the only other public side. The most
prominent feature of the main facade is the building's
fanlight crowned front door with an elegant stair of
brownstone which fans down to the pavement imitating the
form of the window above. This is covered by a semi-
circular portico that incorporates two neo-classically
inspired Ionic columns. Early photographs indicate that
around the middle of the nineteenth century, this portico
was actually rectangular in shape and was supported by
similar columns on top of the existing semi-circular stair.
This may imply that this was originally the intent of the
designer, but with the change, occurring in photographs
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Early east and south elevations from P.N.B. pamphlet, 1979.
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around the same time, the building gained an attractive and
reasonable improvement.
Stylistically, the Bank building represents a time in
Nantucket when design began to break from conservatively
based Quaker formality and start to acknowledge the
influence from the mainland of more stylized and fanciful
work. The country's search for a national style had gone
beyond the Federal at this point and was developing stronger
applications of the neo-classical. Nantucketers by 1818
were probably some of the most travelled people in the
world, with the far reaches of their whaling trade, and
could only naturally be affected in the ways they designed
their buildings. The Nantucket Pacific Bank was the most
obvious and appropriate subject of this new influx of ideas.
While the Bank's front elevation remains today true to the
intentions of tAs original design, its flanks bear witness
to a process of alteration and additions that has been an
integral part of the building's life and its changing
requirements. Originally, the banking house was built as a
"squarish" block oriented to the east down Market Square
with a two bayed ell projecting to the west along the south
elevation. This is the elevation that looks on to Main
Street. The building was constructed of heavy brick masonry
walls and through the first and second floor rose an
interior transverse masonry wall of similar girth that was
so spaced to handle the support of the second floor on large
wooden joists. Due to this configuration the main banking
space to the front, or east end of the building, was rather
restricted.
Through the front entrance one came into a tight public
lobby serving the teller's counter that began right after
the first window to the south and ran transversly across to
where the vaults were located on the north wall. The
structural evidence of the original location of these vaults
wcrc looatsod on tho north wall. The trutural evidrenee of
-.che original of these vaults (two, as seen from an early
plan) is still visible in the basement by a large structural
arch of brick masonry existing in the appropriate location.
Obviously, no windows were on the north side of the first
floor until these vaults were later removed. Behind the
tellers counter was a banking space that went as far as that
interior transverse masonry wall. This wall contained one
fireplace that served the banking and public space to the
east and two others that faced west into two offices on the
other side. The drawings completed in 1925 show that the
President's office had been the one on the south side of the
building.5 Beyond this office was the entrance hall and
stair to the apartment above. This, in combination with
another office to the west, was the ell that was most
probably original to the building. Early drawings show that
there was a fireplace on the west wall of this ell which
probably would have served an original kitchen to the
apartment above.6
VL-
u''r.s~/ C)
7
Early plan shows original layout of the first floor (1818) stair and
use of rooms unverified.
19th century photographs show painted exterior walls (removed around 1925).
Plan and photographs from PNB pamphlet, 1979, pp. 16.
At one point, not long after the original construction,
another ell was built off the west wall of the main block on
the north side facing Liberty Street. Up until this time
there is no evidence that there were ever any windows below
the second floor on that side of the building. This new ell
protruded north of the north block allowing for a door to be
located there, and the new space to used as the Director's
Room. For some reason this addition was built so that its
second floor was four feet below that of the main building's
and had to be bridged with a short run of stairs to connect
the two. A stair from the basement to the first and up to
the second floor is recorded to have been built later into
this ell, but little is knownof any detail. In any case,
the construction of this north ell was completely
independent of the existing south ell and evidence of a
larger fireplace may indicate that the kitchen was moved
over from there.
The apartment that housed the family of the Bank's Cashier
was originally on the second floor and was entered from the
south and up the south stairs in the rear. A staircase is
shown in one early plan off the main lobby on the north side
east of the vaults, however, not other mention of this stair
was found.7 The two front rooms, a drawing room and dining
room, are still in use by the bank's business offices and
remain much as they were in 1818. As aside note, this
drawing room on the south side is where the Mitchell
sisters' infamous piano was hidden until they were chastised
8
by the Quaker congregation. From these front rooms back,
little more information has been collected on the layout of
the second floor. Not until later, when the two ells were
eventually connected, does any other mention arise.
The roof of the original building is a hip or mansard
configuration on the main block with the ride of a pitched
roof over the southern ell following the same ridge line.
The northern ell is considerably shorter than the rest of
the building, however, and its pitched roof lies below and
projects from the main buildings' west wall. (In the
eventual connection of these wings and additions, with even
more space being created below, the roof plan has since
become a rather complicated combination of ridges, valleys,
slopes and flat surfaces that may eventually be responsible
for some maintenance problems.)
As fortunes seem to have been building most rapidly in
Nantucket between 1800 and the late forties, it would follow
that the bank's working needs would have called for any
changes to be made at this time. As of this writing,
however, the construction of the north ell sometime in the
first half of the century is all that can be seen. No other
alterations are recorded in this period. It is possible
that the Great Fire of 1846, which virtually leveled almost
one third of the town, made the rebuilding of other
businesses and homes a priority and thus stifled any
activity at the bank. One notable exception was the
observatory (no longer in existence) built on the roof by
William Mitchell, the bank's cashier from 1837 to 1861.
From here in 1847, his daughter Maria discovered the comet
that won here international acclaim and gold medal from the
King of Denmark. Even exact dates for this construction are
not recorded, however.
In 1865 the bank gave up its state charter and became
federally incorporated as the Pacific National Bank of
Nantucket. A year later new doors and lock3were fitted to
the bank's vaults. In 1894, with much fanfare and under
important leadership of cashier Albert Brock, the Bank
installed "steel lined, burglar proof, doors made for the
vault... with locks of the most approved kind."9 Clearly,
the nineteenth century was not a period of major alteration
to the buildings original design, but in 1912 Brock is
accredited with organizing a major modernization of the
Bank's interior layout. No information was found concerning
any changes that might have been made at this time. The
next significant turn of events doesn't seem to have taken
place until the years 1924-25.
By this time the original ideas and requirements of the
traditional banking house were certainly outdated. The
duties and business of the institution had evolved
considerably, even though economic hard times that had
befallen the island with the collapse of the whaling
befallen the island with the collapse of the whaling
industry. In 1923, the Bank's Trust Department was
initiated and by 1924 the time right for change. Original
blue prints prepared by the Boston firm of Densmore LeClear
and Robbins, dated February 1924, indicate the following
changes and additions made by the bank the next year.0
In first solving the real problems of limited public space,
the entire masonry wall which transversed the main building
was eliminated on the first floor, including the fireplaces,
and replaced by structural columns which bear on the
existing masonry foundations below. The teller's counter
and screen were then pushed back to this point, where it
remains today. The vaults were removed, creating a greater
public space that continued back to the west wall of the
original building. Windows were then introduced into the
north wall lighting the space better and creating a far less
stark elevation on the outside. The new public lobby then
wrapped around the L-shaped teller's counter which continued
to contain a banking area behind.
The vaults were replaced by a new two story vault which was
built on the back of the north ell. The floor heights
remained unchanged from the original additions' design and
the stair that had serviced the basement, first and second
floors was removed, creating a new basement access under the
south stair. The entrance from Liberty Street was also
removed at this point and replaced by a window. The stair
and stair hall in the south ell, as the only remaining
access to the second floor, .aa4- pushing its hall space into
the banking area behind the counter. This in effect was a
protrusion east of the original west wall of the main
building. This wall was penetrated again to the north,
creating an opening into a lobby space serving the new
vaults, the Director's Room and offices with an iron gate
separating it from the main Lobby.
At this point the two ells were finally combined,
eliminating the eight foot space that had existed between
them. The joining accommodated space for coupon booths on
the first floor and bathroom facilities on the second, and
the President's office was moved west to the office still
served by a fireplace in the back of the south ell.
In completing these changes the bank had solved its problems
of limited public space as well as the difficulties with
horizontal "work traffic"11 that had been an issue for some
time. The problems of vertical circulation remained,
however, and with the adaptation of the second floor
apartment to working space the problems became even more
evident. Today the Bank still suffers from this
inconvenience.
b6
One other notable alteration to completed around this same
time, although it is not exactly know when, was the removal
of exterior paint and the return of the natural color of the
brick.12 Early photographs have shown the building painted
white with contrasting color applied to the recessed window
13
panels and details. The removal of these finishes are
said to have been completed with a torch.
The building was again altered four years later in 1929 in
attempt to continue the modernization of the institution and
its facilities. Another set of drawings prepared by the
same firm of Densmore, LeClear and Robbins, document the
construction of an addition of two more bays to the south
16
ell in May of 1929. This project introduces, rather
unfortunately, the history of another building which would
later become bodily as well as institutionally bound to the
Pacific National Bank. The Masonic Lodge Hall, next to the
bank at 63 Main Street was occupied in 1929 by a combination
of small retail shops and various community groups. The
unfortunate nature of its relationship to the bank is that
also in 1929, half of it was torn down to allow for the
construction of this new addition.
Built in 1802, the Masonic Lodge is described as once having
a five-bayed facade with "colossal order Roman Ionic
pilasters"l5 flanking the center bay and at the outer
corners. With a full entablature, the second story windows
were enframed by small pilaster supporting archivolts and
keystones and the first floor was fashioned with a Greek
Revival entablature and pilasters as storefronts to serve
the changing needs of its owners. Two full bays to the east
were demolished to ma e way for the bank's addition.
The masonry wall and its fireplace serving the president's
office was removed form the bank's south ell now, of
course, joined to the north ell in the 1925 alterations.
The tow-bayed block that was added mimicked the two-bayed
block of the original east end of the elevation, thus
creating a more perceivable balance on this side of the
building. The south still being higher than the north, two
small windows were included in the north wall of the
addition to bring light into these new second story spaces.
At this point the Pacific National Bank commanded quite a
sizable piece of this corner property. The usable interior
square footage of the building had more than doubled in its
first century and every effort had been put forward in
keeping the institution as modern and efficient as possible.
For the most part this had consistently been done with the
historic nature of the building in mind, as well as its
place in the community as a whole. It wasn't until the
issue of the Masonic Lodge Hall came up again in the fifties
and sixties that the institution had truly been put to the
test.
In 1952, the bank became the tenth owner of the denatured
Masonic Lodge Hall. since Nantucket's anti-Masonic period
in the 1830's and 40's, the building had been changing hands
almost regularly. Its first floor had always been rented,
as mentioned before, to small shops and merchants while the
second floor had served as the meeting place for a number of
schools, clubs and societies. When the Pacific National
Bank bought the property on the Hall's one hundred and
fiftieth year, the favored proposal was to turn the site
into a parking lot, accessible from both Liberty and Main
16
Street. While parking was becoming more and more of a
future need for the growing institution, it clearly would
have been a mistake to demolish this building to serve such
a purpose.
The bank was fortunately persuaded to preserve the Masonic
Lodge and eventually adapt it towards the greater needs of
the Trust Department. In 1970, this work began with
architect and interior designer, Allan Congdon, supervising
its completion. What resulted was first floor connection
being made through a fire door from the Bank's expanded
south side into the remaining portion of the Lodge building.
Most of the major spaces have been left relatively
unaltered, with the exception of its main stair which has
been made smaller and less dominating in the hall.17 The
building appears quite separate from the bank and stands as
a good example of compatible and sensitive treatments that
can be employed in fulfilling the needs of a growing
business.
This brings the building up to date. With the exception of
maintenance and the painting of a large mural in 1954 over
the tellers' screen in the lobby, no other changes can be
identified. This mural was commissioned on the occasion of
the Bank's One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary and depicts
life in Nantucket at the time of the founding in 1804.
As of this past year the Pacific National Bank has taken
over ownership of the Philip Folger block across the street
on Main. This has been slated for the expansion of even
more Trust Department space hopeful awaits restoration work.
It seems clear that any future work the bank takes on will
certainly include a firm commitment to the architectural and
historical issues that surround Nantucket. As a focal point
and leader in the community since its founding, the Pacific
National Bank must continue to grow while at the same time
be an example of the stewardship that must accompany every
institution's policies towards change.
FOOTNOTES
1. Pacific National Bank, 1804-1979: A Remarkable Bank
Account, p. 4-6.
2. Ibid.
3. George A. Fowlkes, Mirror of Nantucket.
4. Julian Gallup Everett, Memor sent to bank, 4/9/74.
5. Original Drawings by Densmore, LeClear and Robbins,
February 3, 1924 (D.A.).
6. Pacific National Bank, Remarkable Bank Account, 1979,
p. 17.
7. Ibid, p. 16.
8. Kehlenbeck Interview, July 23, 1986.
9. Pacific National Bank, Pamphlet 1979, p. 12.
10. Drawings found at offices of Design Associates, Inc.
Nantucket, MA.
11. Everett Memo, 4/9/74.
12. HABS Report, June, 1971 (Mass 938).
13. Pacific National Bank, Pamphlet, 1979, p.16. And
original photo in bank's possession.
14. Drawing found at Design Associates
15. Clay Lancaster, The Architecture of Historic Nantucket,
p. 152.
16. Letter addressed to Robert G. Metters, Chairman of
N.H.A. Building Survey.
17. Ibid.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Lancaster, Clay. The Architecture of Historic
Nantucket, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.
2. Fowlkes, George Allen, A Mirror of Nantucket,
New Jersey, 1959.
3. Historic American Buildings Survey, #Mass-938.
Historical Report prepared by Marie M. Coffin,
June, 1966. Material edited for deposit in
Library of Congress by Constance Werner Ramirez,
June, 1971.
4. Brock, Albert G. "History of Bank", Proceedings,
N.H.A., 1904.
5. Folger Museum, Folder 25, Collection 91, HABS.
6. Pacific National Bank 1804-1979: A Remarkable
Bank Account, Pacific National Bank, 1980.
7. Pacific National Bank We've Been Helping Nantucketers
for 180 Years, Pacific National Bank, 1984.
8. Drawing for 1925 and 1929 changes were found at the
offices of Design Associates with help from
Chris Dalmus.
9. Mr. Henry G. Kehlenbeck, President Pacific National
Bank was most helpful in providing a tour of the
building from basement to roof and making available
drawings and information which were in the bank's
possession.
10. Memo found in Foulger Museum Collection from Julian
Gallup Everett to the Pacific National Bank,
April 9, 1974, was very important in this work.
Although his drawings were never found, this memo
"summarizes the data in the blueprints in the bank's
possession, that I used in preparing these drawings
of the 'as is' arrangements of the Premises."
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