Bank of Sikeston (1934)

The St. Louis Bank Building & Equipment Co. may have been the first design/build firm to serve the financial industry on a national scale.  However, they were not exempt from feeling the ramifications brought on by the Great Depression, which brought almost a complete halt to bank construction and remodeling. The company’s only job during the depression years was as both architect and general contractor for the Bank of Sikeston.  This project has been attributed to holding the company over during the early 1930s. 

The Bank of Sikeston was a small Classical style, stone structure with built up massing, parapet walls and adorned with fluted columns and a detailed beltcourse at the roofline.  From the tall windows deeply recessed into the walls provided to the centrally placed flagpole at the top of the building, the overall design demonstrated the characteristic strength of banks in an era when how money was handled was on everyone’s mind.