Category:Allentown National Bank

Camera location	40° 36′ 17″ N, 75° 28′ 17″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.604722; -75.471389

 See also category: First National Bank of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Allentown National Bank 

bank building in Allentown, Pennsylvania
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Instance of	bank building
Location	Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Street address	13-17 North Seventh Street
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Heritage designation	National Register of Historic Places listed place (A, C, Allentown National Bank, NRHP building, 2005–)
Inception	1905
40° 36′ 16.92″ N, 75° 28′ 17.04″ W
Authority file  Q4732069 NRHP reference number: 05001490 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

The Allentown National Bank building is a historic bank building built in 1905, located at 2 North Seventh Street. It is a large eight-story, steel frame and masonry-clad building in the cassical revival style, popular at the end of the 19th and beginning of the early 20th century.

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1995. It, and the adjcent Hunsicker/Trojan Powder building are the oldest buildings on Center Square.

Allentown National Bank was first chartered on March 10th, 1855 when the General Assembly of Pennsylvania and Governor James Pollock authorized the establishment of a bank under state charter in Allentown with a capitalization of $100,000. The bank, using the name Allentown Bank, operated as a state bank until August 1st, 1865 when it returned its state charter and organized as a national bank under the provisions of the National Currency Act of 1865.

The original bank building was a two-story stone structure that was first built in the 1850s, which was located at the same location as the current structure. The early bank served its customers with traditional banking services such as savings and also scrip (checking) accounts which were honored by local merchants in the area. When it became a national bank in 1865, it also was authorized to issue National Currency Notes, which served the same purpose as our currency does today.

The 19th Century bank was torn down in 1904, and replaced by the current building. The bank was one of the first "skyscrapers" in Allentown. The bank operated out of the first floor, and some floors above for bank offices. The remainder of the building was leased for office space to various companies and for professional offices.

Allentown National Bank was the leading bank in Allentown during the 1800s and first part of the 20th Century. In November 1954, it merged with the Allentown Second National Bank, founded in 1864, whose building was on the southeastern corner of Center Square. The merged bank, called the First National Bank, had assets of more than $77 million, making it the largest bank in Eastern Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia when it opened.

In June 1955, First National Bank purchaced the Koch Brothers buildiing at the northeast corner of 7th and hamilton Streets (Where Two City Center building is today). The Koch Brothers building had been one of the most historic buildings in the city, most recently dated to 1886 when the Koch Brothers purchaced the property and built the six-story Hotel Allen on the site with their retail clothing store on the first floor. The city was the leading hotel in Allentown for many years until after World War II. The building was condenmed by the Commonwealth in 1949 and the building was extensively modified and turned into a three-story clothing store, retaining the name Koch Brothers that opened in June 1952.

With the purchace, construction of the new First National Bank building began, which opened in June, 1958. With its opening, the former Allentown National Bank building was sold and was used by the Allentown Business School. The former Second National Bank building was sold to Park & Shop, which tore down the structure in 1959.

After the First National Bank moved out, it was the home of the General Acceptace Corporation (later Finance America), a loan company which called it the "Center Square Building" until it closed in 1979. In the 1980s, it was used by the Allentown Buisness School until it moved out in 1986. After the ABS moved out, it was basiclly unused and the building was taken over by the city, which wanted to tear it down and offer the space to developers to erect a modern office building.

The collapse into sinkhole of the Corporate Plaza complex on the west side of North Seventh street in 1994 ended those plans. After the skinhole, occured, the Allentown Bank building, along with the former Hunsicker/Trojan Powder building at 17-19 North 7th were structurally inspected and found to be unaffected by the sinkhole. However, the former Somach Bridal Boutique, at 21 North Seventh and two other buildings on the east side North Seventh Street were found to be sinkhole-affected and were raised as uninhabitable due to sinkhole damage. The money which was planned to be spent tearing down the bank was instead used to raise the sinkhole-damaged buildings instead.

The former Allentown National Bank building was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1995, and city officials wanted to get a tenant for the building. However it would require a lot of work and money to update its systems, which were aged and in poor repair. In 2005 it, and the adjacent Hunsicker/Trojan Powder building were purchaced by Penrose Properties of Philadelphia. Both buildings were completely renovated and redeveloped into a Senior Housing Complex, being merged to create 63 one-bedroom units. The combined building today is fully occupied by seniors in apartments.