{"nrhp_refnum":"82000969","name":"National Bank of Whittier Building","other_names":["Bank of America Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"13002 E. Philadelphia St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Whittier","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":33.978859844000056,"lon":-118.03711416299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-12-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story reinforced concrete bank and office building at the southwest corner of Greenleaf Avenue and Philadelphia Street in Whittier, Los Angeles County, California, built in 1923 and later known as the Bank of America Building.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the best remaining example of Second Renaissance Revival style in the greater Whittier area and was designed by the noted Los Angeles firm of John and Donald Parkinson. Its site has housed banks since 1887, contributing to local commercial development. It also held the first law office of Richard M. Nixon, later the 37th President.","narrative":"Rising six stories at a Whittier street corner, this reinforced concrete bank and office building was completed in 1923 to designs by the Los Angeles firm of John and Donald Parkinson. Its terra cotta facades are richly ornamented in a Second Renaissance Revival manner, with a granite base, pilasters, leaded-glass transoms, scroll stringcourses, urn-and-vine panels and a bracketed cornice. The exterior remains largely original, and upper floors keep features such as brass and cast iron stair railings, wood doors and a manually operated elevator. The site has held a bank since 1887, and this structure replaced an 1880s brick building at a cost of $414,000. It was the largest and tallest building in Whittier for many years. The building also housed law offices, including the firm Richard M. Nixon joined in 1937, making it the site of his first law office. These ties to architecture, local commerce and politics underlie its recognition.","period_of_significance":"1923","architect_builder":"John and Donald Parkinson","architectural_style":"Second Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in commercial use; exterior virtually unchanged, interior partly modified, with the ground-floor bank lobby remodeled in the early 1960s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.70801-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82000969.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82000969/c2e6a5c74a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82000969/c2e6a5c74a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Los Angeles","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Bank_of_Whittier_Building.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Bank_of_Whittier_Building.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859341","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_of_Whittier_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14683460"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/national-bank-of-whittier-building-82000969/"}