A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 1

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Here's the back story about the upcoming posts of architect A. E. Doyle's Bank of California on the corner of SW 6th Avenue and SW Stark. I'm not going to call it any of its other iterations because I'm so fond of Doyle's work and figure he deserves respect from me in my posts about his buildings. For years I have felt this building to be one of the loveliest in downtown Portland, so pleasing to the eye in its symmetry and size, the shapes of the windows, the bronze metalwork along the bottom of the arch windows and at the heart of the door, the cast terra cotta and marble exterior. 

Here we have two photos that I took on October 25, 2012. I got off the homeward bound bus to take them and the ones you'll see over the next few days.

I go this way Monday through Friday after work, but I never get off the bus here--there's no reason--I've only been on it a . At least there wasn't until the day before I got off and took these photos. As we passed by, my back to this side of the street, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there were lights on inside the building which has not been in use since I moved to Portland in June, 2006, that I know of anyway. Astonished, I swiveled my head from right to left to make certain that I had really seen lights on in the Bank of California. 

I found this online which explains why the lights were on inside the Bank of California: 

Historic Bank of California Building for lease 330 S.W. Sixth Ave. POSTED: Monday, December 17, 2012 at 12:01 PM PT BY: Lee Fehrenbacher Tags: A.E. Doyle, Bank of California Building, historic buildings 

The historic Bank of California Building in downtown Portland, which opened in 1925 and was designed by noted Portland architect A.E. Doyle, is for lease. The Italian Renaissance Palace Style structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. 

And I found the 1978 National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination form online, which makes for some fine reading about the building. I cannot get the link to work! So, I don't know if this will help or not, but in case you're interested, here it is for you to copy and paste: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/78002306.pdf
   

Three photos for you to enjoy:

• Vintage Photo One, 1974
• Vintage Photo Two, 1974
• Close-up of Door, Photo Three