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.