Jacksonville Architecture

This building came in second place in the 1908-1909 race to be Jacksonville's first skyscraper. Ground was broken in August, 1908, for the Atlantic National Bank Building, just two months after the Bisbee Building and a few months before the Seminole Hotel. All three of these buildings were ten-stories tall and were within one block of each other on Forsyth Street. The Bisbee Building was partially occupied before the Atlantic Bank was completed in October, 1909, followed by the Seminole Hotel, which opened on January 1, 1910. The Atlantic Bank Building is of steel-frame construction, with a covering of white marble on the lower two floors and white terra-cotta on the remainder of the classically inspired facade. Further decoration is achieved by an abundance of terra-cotta detailing, large two-story columns framing an ornate entrance, a dentilled cornice, and metal spandrels between the vertical rows of windows. The Atlantic Bank, which had its original banking room in the Dyal-Upchurch Building (D-27), was founded in 1903 by Edward W. Lane, Thomas P. Denham, and Fred W. Hoyt. Lane, who came from a family of prominent Georgia bankers, served as the Atlantic Bank's president for its first twenty-five years (see RA-81).