STAPLETON -- The triangular-shaped building at the corner of Water and Beach streets, home to the Staten Island Savings Bank, is much more than a place where money is routinely deposited and withdrawn. Built in 1924 in the neo-Classical style and designated a New York City landmark seven years ago, it displays decorative exterior details that serve as iconographic references both to the building’s function as a bank and to Stapleton’s maritime history.
Check out the shield at the top of the entrance gate and notice two bees and a beehive — “representing industry, economy, and thrift,” according to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission — along with an owl, wings spread, signifying wisdom.
Mounted on the rusticated limestone facades are four lanterns, secured by the tails of dolphin-like sconces.
Step back and look up at the roof of the rounded portico entrance and observe the “cast-lead dome in a fish-scale pattern with a decorative lead finial and flagpole” as the Landmarks Preservation Commission described in its report designating the building a landmark.
Walk up the granite steps and notice that the portico’s floor “is laid in the pattern of a compass rose.” An ancient cartographic symbol displaying the points of a compass, the compass rose has long been used as an architectural element, indicating north, south, east and west directions.
SOME HISTORY
The Staten Island Savings Bank was incorporated in 1864 and began operating in 1867, in a rented office at the corner of Bay and Broad streets in Stapleton.
The bank’s 21 founders included abolitionist and philanthropist Francis Gould Shaw, brewery owner John Bechtel, and entrepreneur Louis H. Meyer, who served as the first president.
The bank’s first depositor was Mary Josephine Thiery, who arrived with $100 on June 8, 1867.
As business grew, the bank relocated several times in Stapleton.
Its next move was to the corner of Dock and Bay streets, in what was then known as the Tynan Building or Tynan’s Hall. In 1892, the bank relocated again, this time to its own building on the ground floor at the corner of Water and Beach streets.
In December 1922, the bank’s trustees announced that Delano & Aldrich, the nationally prominent architectural firm, had been hired to design a new building, at the corner of Water and Beach streets.
By this time, the bank’s business was thriving. It was “triple what it had been only 10 years earlier and assets had reached $1.913 million, most of which was invested in local mortgages,” the city’s landmark agency reported.
“The cornerstone was laid in 1924, and the new building opened for business on January 7, 1925.”