Alabama Penny Savings Bank

The Alabama Penny Savings Bank is a historic building built in 1913 at 310 18th Street North in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The building has also been known as the Pythian Temple. Alabama Penny Savings Bank was the first black-owned bank in Alabama and financed construction of homes and churches for thousands of local black citizens. The bank was founded in 1890 and was the second largest black bank in the United States in 1907.^[2] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.^[1]

Alabama Penny Savings Bank
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Location	310 18th St. N, Birmingham, Alabama
Coordinates	33°30′54″N 86°48′37″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1913
Built by	Windham Construction Co.
Architect	Wallace A. Rayfield
Architectural style	Commercial style
Part of	Fourth Avenue Historic District (ID82002041)
NRHP reference No.	80004471[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	March 10, 1980
Designated CP	February 11, 1982

History

Alabama Penny Savings Bank was founded by William Reuben Pettiford in 1890.^[3] Branches of the bank were established in Selma, Anniston, and Montgomery. After Pettiford's death the bank merged and then closed in 1915.^[4][3]

Victor Tulane and William J. Robinson ran the Montgomery branch. Robinson was also general manager of The Emancipator newspaper.^[5]

Architecture

The bank building is a six-story Commercial style building with a buff-colored brick exterior. "It has a strong vertical appearance, emphasized by its proportions and the unbroken rise of four vertical piers." It has a projecting cornice.^[2]

Its architect, Wallace Rayfield, was African American.

The building is significant as "a distinctive local example of 1910s office building design". It was built by a local black construction company and may have been designed by black architect Wallace A. Rayfield, who designed many other buildings for the black community in Birmingham.^[2][6]

It is also a contributing building in the Fourth Avenue Historic District.^[2]

See also

• List of Knights of Pythias buildings
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Birmingham, Alabama

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
2. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Alabama Penny Savings Bank / Pythian Temple". National Park Service. Retrieved July 25, 2019. With accompanying photo from 1977
3. "Penny Savings Bank". October 5, 2017.
4. "Penny Savings Bank of Birmingham".
5. African American Historic Places. John Wiley & Sons. July 13, 1995. ISBN 978-0-471-14345-1.
6. Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (March 2004). African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge. pp. 474–477. ISBN 978-1-135-95629-5. Knights of Pythian Temple Building (1913)