The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building, also known as the Weylin and 175 Broadway, is a former bank building at 175 Broadway in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Constructed as the headquarters of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in 1875 and subsequently expanded several times, it occupies the northwest corner of Broadway and Driggs Avenue, just south of the Williamsburg Bridge. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building was designed in the Classical Revival style by George B. Post, with interiors by Peter B. Wight.
The portion of the bank building to the east, and the annexes to the west, are designed in the same style. The building's facade is made of marble, limestone, and sandstone. The main entrance is through a flight of steps on Broadway, leading up to an archway in the original building. The roof contains a large steel dome above the building's original portion. Inside, a decorative vestibule leads to the original banking room, which has pilasters and archways beneath the painted dome. A second banking room with a smaller dome was to the west, while the bank's internal offices were to the north.
George B. Post was hired to design the 175 Broadway building in 1869 following an architectural design competition, and it opened in June 1875 as the bank's third headquarters. The bank's business expanded through the late 19th century, prompting the bank to hire the firm of Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell to design an addition from 1903 to 1906. Further expansions occurred in 1923–1925 and 1941–1942. Though the bank moved its headquarters to One Hanson Place in Downtown Brooklyn in 1929, the 175 Broadway building remained in use as a branch. The building's facade and original banking room are New York City designated landmarks, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank became part of HSBC Bank USA through several mergers, and HSBC sold the building in 2010. Following a renovation, the banking hall became an event space called the Weylin in 2014.
Site The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building is at 175 Broadway, at the northwestern corner with Driggs Avenue, in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. It occupies a rectangular land lot covering , with a frontage of on Driggs Avenue and on Broadway. The city block is bounded by Broadway to the south, Driggs Avenue to the east, South 5th Street to the north, and Bedford Avenue to the west. The northern half of the city block is occupied by the approach ramp of the Williamsburg Bridge, from which the bank building is visible. Nearby locations include the Peter Luger Steak House across Broadway and Kings County Savings Bank one block west.
Before the 19th century, the city block was part of Frederick Devoe's farm. The site had been divided for development in 1834, and the block contained two churches and several houses by the 1850s. The entire northern section of the block was demolished to make way for the Williamsburg Bridge, which opened in 1903.
Architecture The bank building is a Classical Revival structure designed by George B. Post and erected in 1875 for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank. The edifice is four stories high with a domed roof. The building blends Roman and Renaissance classical elements, a style that only became popularized two decades after the structure was completed. The current configuration of the building dates to a major expansion in 1906; minor modifications were also made in 1923 and 1941–1942. The firm of Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell designed the 1900s and 1920s additions.
Facade
The building's facade is made of marble, limestone, and sandstone. Most of the building's facade consists of white Westerly stone. The basement is clad with polished Quincy granite, which was originally colored purple. Various other types of stone are used for smaller architectural details. At ground level, a cast-iron railing runs around the building. Each of the building's corners contains vertical quoins. A sculptural group on the facade illustrates the scriptural Parable of the Talents.
Post's original building measures about . The main entrance is on Broadway, where a wide staircase with several steps leads up to the doorway. On either side of the stoop are candelabras. The doorway consists of two bronze doors, recessed within an ornately decorated archway. The arch is composed of double-height piers, above which are pairs of pilasters in the Ionic order. The piers are made of Jonesborough stone, while the pilasters and the arch's spandrels are made of amber-spotted granite. Above the pilasters is an entablature and a triangular pediment. The building also contains an arch along Driggs Avenue; it is also flanked by piers and Ionic pilasters but has no pediment. The facade also had a clock.
The bank's 1906 annex is west of the original building and measures about . The annex contains a second arch along Broadway, which is flanked by piers and Ionic pilasters but has no pediment. The exterior of the annex is made of plain and polished granite.
Above the arched openings on both sections is a low attic clad with stone. An ornate cornice runs above the attic. Near the top of the building is a drum with 20 oval windows. The drum supports a large cast-iron dome. The dome is covered in steel plates, which the New-York Tribune described as being "laid in the same manner as slates"; this gave the dome a silvery effect. The top of the dome has a cupola with a weather vane. In a book about the building, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank described the dome as "comparing favorably with those of the capitol dome at Washington, with St. Paul's in London and St. Peter's in Rome". The dome became a symbol of the bank, leading bank officials to request the inclusion of a dome atop its second headquarters at One Hanson Place (built in 1929), over the objections of that building's architects Halsey, McCormack and Helmer.
Interior The New York City Department of City Planning cites the building as having around of interior space, though it had prior to a 2010s renovation. Post designed the bank's interior as a series of connected spaces. At ground level was an entrance vestibule from Broadway and the original banking room at the center. A second banking hall was added to the west in 1906. During the early 20th century, women used the original room and men used the newer room. North of the original banking room was a rear wing with the bank's offices. A monogram with the bank's initials, "WSB", appears in hardware and other finishes throughout the building.
Vestibule
The Broadway entrance vestibule, just inside the main staircase from Broadway, was described in the Brooklyn Daily Times as "one of the most beautiful rooms in the building". It is placed beneath a balcony on the south side of the banking room. The vestibule's floor surface was made of English encaustic tiles. The ceiling had a "deep, warm" design created by Peter B. Wight. The center of the ceiling had a wrought-bronze chandelier with multicolored glass.
A full-height partition separated the vestibule from the banking room at the time of the bank's opening. The partition was made of five full-height plates of French glass, decorated with sand-blown trimmings and separated by wood-and-marble columns. This was subsequently replaced by a half-height partition, which appears in images from 1910. The space had doorways on either side, leading to the corners of the banking room. The Daily Times article described the space as having decorated massive oak doors with bronze finishing and glazed paneling.
Original banking room The banking room measures . The hall is divided vertically into three sections: a trabeated lower wall, an attic section, and the dome. The banking room originally had ornate Siena marble floors, but those were covered by carpets. The encaustic tiles had Persian designs at their centers, surrounded by similarly styled borders. The middle of the room had a teller's desk shaped like a "U". The desk had a granite counter with marble paneling. By 1906, a plate-glass barrier had been placed atop the counter. In the early 2010s, the banking room's floor was replaced with blocks of marble from Lebanon, as only a quarter of the original Siena marble floor remained; the original marble was used for the bathrooms.
The banking room contains clusters of pilasters at each corner, as well as beneath the springers of the arches on each side. These pilasters are placed on Italian marble pedestals. Each pedestal has stone ornamentation (later painted into a cream color), interspersed with bronze ventilation grilles and gray-green and gold panels of polished granite. At the top of each pedestal, a dado runs a few feet above the ground, wrapping around each wall. The pilasters are topped by Corinthian-style capitals, above which is an entablature with rosettes and moldings. The entablature contains motifs of lotuses and anthemia, which are painted gold, coral, and black. Above the entablature are stone round-arches; those to the east and south contain tripartite windows similar to those seen in Roman baths. The arches are surrounded by archivolts decorated with rinceaux and gill bosses. The corners of the room, between the arches on each wall, have pendentives.
Beyond the arch of the south wall is a recessed vestibule with a balcony above it and piers in front. The eastern section of the south wall has a mahogany double door, surrounded by an ornate stone doorway. It is topped by a granite panel with the word "staircase" inscribed. The balcony has a neo-Grec-style iron railing and connects with small rooms on either side; it is illuminated by a tripartite lunette window. The east and west walls have narrow windows on their southern sections. On the east wall, there is a large tripartite window facing Driggs Avenue, with a lunette above it. A similar window formerly occupied the west wall before 1906, when the second banking room was added. The passageway to the second banking room was flanked by pilasters and had a coffered ceiling; it was sealed in the 1980s. The north wall has single and double wooden doors, surrounded by ornate stone doorways. At the center of the north wall is a metal vault door.
Beneath the dome, the oval windows of the drum illuminate the banking room. The windows alternate with black pilasters designed in the Neo-Grec style, accented with red and gold decorations. The windows run above a band of ornaments and carved brackets, which are painted red, gold, green, and cream. Above is a bronze and verd antique balustrade, which originally had 40 gas jets. The gas jets were subsequently removed and a pipe rail installed in their place. A cornice runs just below the dome; it is painted black and accented in red and gold. The dome itself is made of a double cast-iron shell and has a mural by P. B. Wight. The center of the mural is painted blue, with golden rays radiating from the top of the dome. The mural has a border with geometric, Neo-Grec, and floral designs. The dome's height is variously cited as being , , or .
Other spaces The vault was directly north of the original banking room and is sealed by a lattice-iron vault door with elaborate painting and stenciling. The vault door has an ornate stone frame and is topped by a broken pediment with a barometer, clock, bronze eagle, and tablet. Inscribed on the tablet are the names of the trustees, cashier, building committee, and architect. There was another vault door as well; both were secured with two combination locks. Behind these were latticed iron doors with patent locks, which guarded the trustees' private safes. Behind yet another locked latticed door was the bank's safe, in which the deposits are kept.