As I was walking down Main Street in Cooperstown on my Memorial Day weekend visit, I noticed these gorgeous details on a building there. It’s marked as the First National Bank Building, but is currently being used as the home for a number of smaller and different businesses, including the Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum and the Cooperstown Souvenir Shop.
I was curious to learn more about this building, and found out that it was built in 1890-91, and is considered an example of “Victorian Romanesque” architecture, although I also see the style referred to as “Romanesque Revival” architecture. Some key characteristics of Romanesque Revival, most of which are present on this First National Bank building, include: the use of heavy masonry (in this case, brick) for the walls with round arches over windows and sometimes doors. Architects would also place massive corner towers with hipped roofs (where all roof sides slope downward toward the walls) to give the impression of a medieval fortress (see another view of the building here).
It was primarily the amount of detail seen in this rounded area underneath the windows that caught my attention – these kind of details just aren’t bothered with in contemporary buildings anymore. It’s really quite beautiful and I appreciate the time and effort involved to make a building look like this.