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Historic Building of the Month: 130 S. Main St.
(Commercial Bank, Bank of Wood County, Huntington Bank)
On Tuesday, February 23, 1926, the Commercial Bank and Savings Company opened its impressive new building at 130 S. South Main Street in downtown Bowling Green. Under a front-page banner headline, the Wood County Democrat enthused that the bank’s new home was “one of the most handsome buildings in Ohio, and many have been kind enough to say that it is the finest banking room in the State.” After the all-day opening celebration, the Democrat reported that thousands had attended the event. “The visitors were met at the main entrance, where the ladies were presented carnations and the men folks with good cigars. Two thousand balloons were also distributed to children who visited the building.”
The Commercial Bank had been founded in 1885 by Albert E. Royce, Wallace H. Smith, and J. J. Coon, and became Commercial Bank & Savings in 1905. It was the second bank in Bowling Green, after the Exchange Bank (established in 1871), and by 1926 it was the oldest remaining bank in the city.
The bank was first located at 121 South Main (now City Egg). In 1889, its president, A. E. Royce, built the Royce Block at 136 S. Main (now Ace Hardware), and early in the twentieth century the bank moved into its north wing. This wing was demolished to make room for the big, new building, eliminating the original symmetry of Royce’s Italianate structure.
In 1924, the bank contracted with the local builder Leo Herman to erect the new building at a cost of $150,000 (about $2,750,000 in 2024). Herman also built the Men’s Gymnasium at BGSU (now Eppler South), as well as several churches around Ohio.
According to a directory printed in the Wood County Democrat, the second and third floors of the new building housed three law offices, two medical practices, two dental offices, a realtor, the Inter-County Credit Association, and the Princess Beauty Shop, which offered “Marcelling and Permanent Waving.”
In 1980, when the Main Street Historic District was placed in the National Register of Historic Places, 130 South Main was listed as one of the structures that contribute to the district’s historic significance. Regional Preservation Officer Ted Ligibel described the three-story building as “a Neo-Classic style structure based on Greek Temple designs,” built of gray Indiana limestone. Palmette acroteria (palm-leaf-shaped decorations) adorn the peak and corners of the pediment (gable) at the top of the façade. The third story is set off by a wide frieze with geometric fret patterns. Four round columns with Doric capitals rise from the ground level to support the stone lintel over the second story, with the bank’s name carved into it. Three delicate floral reliefs between the first and second floors reflect the Adamesque style of Neo-Classical decoration, which dates to the eighteenth century. Today, as in 1980, the building’s exterior is virtually unaltered from its appearance in 1926, although there is no longer a clock above the central entranceway....Continue Reading Historic Building
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