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The Kings County Savings Bank building *[1] (http://www.wahcenter.org/center/news/2003/2003restoration.html) was built between 1860 and 1867. It is 43 1/2 by 81 feet on the outside dimension and is constructed of Dorchester sandstone. It has three main floors. Each floor is a single monumentally large main room. In the first and second floors, the main rooms contain six tall Corinthian columns, formed of cast iron, while the third floor is entirely open. The first floor retains its massive gas chandeliers and ornately carved wood work.
Although the designer William H. Wilcox of the Brooklyn firm King & Wilcox is relatively unknown, the building is a superb example of its style, the French Second Empire. Originating in France, the adaptation of the Renaissance design was imported to the United States as a modern style. The new style was characterized by a Mansard roof. The technique of concealing an entire full story behind sloping walls disguised as a roof was developed in Paris as means of avoiding property taxes, which were assessed upon the height of the building to its cornice.
The Kings County Savings Institution was charted on April 10, 1860. It carried in business in a building called Washington Hall until it purchased the lot on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Broadway and erected its permanent home.
The building remained in continuos bank ownership and use for well over a century. Even by 1900 the Kings County Saving Bank was recognized as monument of old Williamsburg, part of the past before the Williamsburg Bridge was built rendering Manhattan ferries obsolete. it belonged to a time when Broadway was a powerful thouroughfare for manufacturing and commerce.
The Kings County Savings Bank marked the end of an era when banks were operated by and for the wealthy. It has been noted that it resembles more a millionaires mansion than a public institution.This was the bank used by the wealthiest men in America. It remains to this day probably the most historically important landmark in Williamsburg, representing a time of conspicuous wealth and the industrial and financial strength of the American phenomenon.
To walk through the front doors of this building today is to step into another century, a rare experience and one to treasure. It was the 7th building in all of New York City to be landmarked and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
During the early 90s after the building ceased to be used for banking, it was occupied by a pair of eccentric artist time travelers, McDermott & McGough. They wanted to show that all time was now time. They dressed in 19th century garb and kept a fashionable life style of the 19th century.
Currently the building houses the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, a not-for profit art organization, founded by Yuko Nii in Octiber 1996.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn is, as of 2004, the largest art community in the world today with over 10,000 artists, many of them from other parts of the United States as well as other countries.
From the public records:
04/10/1860 NYS Chartered Kings County Savings Bank
12/31/1968 Merge To State Union Square Savings Bank
12/31/1968 Name Change To United Mutual Savings Bank
09/24/1982 Merge To State American Savings Bank
07/29/1983 Convert Federal American Savings Bank, F.S.B.
12/29/1989 Convert State American Savings Bank
06/12/1992 LID Sold To Ridgewood Savings Bank
10/20/1995 Liquidated
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