Williamsburg Branch, Public National Bank of New York
47 Graham Avenue | also 63 Varet Street, 49 Graham Avenue | East Williamsburg | built 1923
Open on the map6 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1921
Public National Bank buys a Graham Avenue corner for a new Williamsburg branch
The New York Times and The Bankers Magazine reported in February 1921 that Public National Bank of New York had bought a 50-by-100-foot site at Graham Avenue and Varet Street in eastern Williamsburg. The bank already ran a branch two blocks away, at Graham and Siegel Avenues, and said a rise in its business called for a new building. It was expected to be a one-story banking house with a large banking room.
- 1921
Eugene Schoen, a Vienna-influenced designer, is announced as architect of the branch
By November 1921 Eugene Schoen had been announced as the architect. Born in New York in 1880, Schoen graduated from Columbia in 1902 and then traveled to Europe, where he met Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffmann in Vienna. The Landmarks Preservation Commission notes he is now remembered mostly as a furniture designer, though he was in the forefront of modern American design in the first half of the century.
- 1923
The branch is completed as a one-story cast-stone temple with Viennese touches
Built in 1921-23, the branch was Schoen's first new branch building for Public National Bank. It takes the form of a one-story temple clad in cast stone, with rusticated columns and corner piers framing rectangular and round-arched openings. Classical and Secessionist ornament appears on its panels and entrance surrounds, and Architecture and Building published it in 1923.
- 1955
Public National Bank merges with Bankers Trust, and the Graham Avenue branch changes hands
In 1955 Public National Bank & Trust Co. merged with Bankers Trust Co. of New York, and the Times reported that joining two large branch networks was a main goal. The result was 42 Bankers Trust branches, eight of them in Brooklyn, including the Williamsburg branch on Graham Avenue.
“…which resulted in 42 Bankers Trust branch banks – the Williamsburg Branch on Graham Avenue was one of eight in Brooklyn…”
- 1981
Bankers Trust sells the branch to National Bank of North America
In 1981 this bank was among 16 branches that Bankers Trust sold to the National Bank of North America. That bank had been bought two years earlier by National Westminster Bank, described as Great Britain's second largest. The Landmarks Preservation Commission says the building now serves as the Williamsburg branch of Bank of America.
“In 1981, this branch bank was one of 16 acquired from Bankers Trust by the National Bank of North America…”
- 2012
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the bank an individual landmark
On January 17, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the former Public National Bank branch at 47-49 Graham Avenue a New York City landmark. At the hearing on March 22, 2011, a representative of the Historic Districts Council spoke in favor, and the Bank of America sent a letter of support.
“January 17, 2012, Designation List 451; a representative of the Historic Districts Council, spoke in favor of designation; letter in support of designation from the Bank of America…”
Nearby
- US Post Office-Metropolitan Station47 Debevoise Street | 2 entries
- Woodhull Medical Center760 Broadway | 5 entries
- I.S. 318 Eugenio Maria de Hostos135 Harrison Avenue | 5 entries
- F. J. Berlenbach House174 Meserole Street | 5 entries
- Eyebeam199 Cook Street | 1 entry
- William Ulmer Brewery75 Beaver Street | 7 entries