Erie County Savings Bank

Church and Franklin

architect: George Brown Post

owner: Erie County Savings Bank

years built: 1893

demolished: 1968

One of the latest big commercial buildings to employ solid masonry construction rather than a metal skeleton.

The groupings of four stories of windows under tall arches was an effective device borrowed from Richardson’s Marshall Field store in Chicago, IL. Other Richardson features seen in the design of the building include the medieval corner turrets and the formers in the high roof.

The contrast with the Prudential Building diagonally opposite is very striking, yet that was only constructed three years later. It is apparent that Sullivan also learned from Richardson, but what he learned, he made entirely all his own.