{"nrhp_refnum":"05001490","name":"Allentown National Bank","other_names":["Meridian Bank"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"13-17 N. Seventh St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Allentown","county":"Lehigh County","state":"PA","lat":40.604688434000025,"lon":-75.47099682099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-12-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An 8-story steel-frame commercial building with masonry cladding, constructed in 1905 as the headquarters of the Allentown National Bank at the heart of downtown Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The bank's architects were Jacoby, Weishampel & Biggin.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its association with the bank, which it describes as the city's leading financial institution for the first half of the twentieth century, and for its Beaux Arts facades and classical banking rotunda. It is presented as one of the few surviving early twentieth-century bank buildings in downtown Allentown.","narrative":"Built in 1905 as the headquarters of the Allentown National Bank, the eight-story steel-frame building stands on a small parcel near Center Square, its limestone base and terra cotta upper floors executed in the Beaux Arts style. The main banking floor holds a domed rotunda supported by six onyx columns, with ornamental plasterwork and carving by sculptors of the period. Designed by the local firm of Jacoby, Weishampel & Biggin, the building was completed at a cost of $270,000 and was occupied by the bank until its 1954 merger with the Second National Bank. The bank had been founded in 1855 and was regarded as the region's leading financial institution in the early twentieth century. Its interior banking hall and facades are the main reasons for its listing, together with its role in the commercial life of the city. The upper floors were leased as professional offices, and the building remains one of the few early twentieth-century bank buildings surviving in downtown Allentown.","period_of_significance":"1905-1954","architect_builder":"Jacoby, Weishampel & Biggin (architect); W.H. Gangewere and M.T.J. Ochs (contractors); William Gangewere (builder)","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Vacant in the early 1990s; the building was later redeveloped for an assisted living facility under a tax credit program.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.303066-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/05001490.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001490/a846e4a393-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001490/a846e4a393-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2011_-_Allentown_National_Bank_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2011_-_Allentown_National_Bank_Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994485","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allentown_National_Bank","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4732069"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lehigh-county/allentown-national-bank-05001490/"}