Jacksonville Architecture

Nineteen twenty-six was the year of the skyscraper in Jacksonville, at the peak of the 1920's building boom. Seven buildings of ten stories or more were under construction, with the tallest being the Barnett National Bank Building (18 stories). Other skyscrapers under construction were the Lynch Building (17 stories), the Park Lane Apartments (17), the George Washington Hotel (14), the Greenleaf & Crosby Building (12), the Carling Hotel (13), and Atlantic Bank Annex (10). Jacksonville's skyline, which since 1915 had been dominated by the old Heard National Bank (15 stories), seemed to change almost overnight. Barnett National Bank's growth followed Jacksonville's skyline. It was founded in 1877 by William B. Barnett and his son Bion, as the Barnett Bank, with $40,000 in working capital. Within four years, it became the largest bank in Florida. Its name was changed in 1888 to National Bank of Jacksonville and in 1908 to Barnett National Bank. The bank grew steadily over its first fifty years, necessitating the construction of this $1,500,000 banking and office center in 1926, which remained the tallest building in Jacksonville until the Prudential Building was constructed in 1954. Mowbray & Uffinger, nationally known bank architects from New York, designed it (see D-56 & D-58); and the contractor was the James Stewart Co., which constructed Madison Square Garden in New York and the Mitsui Bank in Tokyo, then the largest bank building in the world. The Barnett National Bank Building is handsomely proportioned and reflects the eclectic influences of commercial architectural styles of the 1920's. A two-story arcade faced with limestone makes up the street-level facade, and the building is topped with double-arched windows and a parapet with obelisks. A series of lion heads between the third and fourth stories are among the other interesting details.