Farmers' Loan & Trust Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, commercial building

299-foot, 23-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1926. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck with metalwork by Renaissance Bronze & Iron Works and elements by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Co., it is clad in tan brick above a 3-story limestone base. The west facade on 5th Avenue has five bays with paired windows, while the north facade on 41st Street has a center section of four bays of paired windows (at the 2nd-3rd floors it is organized as seven single-window bays) flanked by two bays of paired windows at each end. The ground floor along 41st Street has metal-and-glass storefronts in the western four bays; to the east is a bay with three stainless steel service doors, the main entrance, and another metal service door at the east end. The two eastern bays are set-back, including most of the main entrance, which has glass infill with a revolving door in the middle; there is a wide stone pier at the west part of the entrance, where the facade sets back. The entrance is covered by a thin metal canopy. On the west facade, the middle of the five bays has the original main entrance, now the entrance to the modernized storefronts on either side. It is framed by engaged Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with "THE FARMERS' LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY BUILDING" on the frieze, shields at the ends, and a dentiled cornice on top. On either side of this entablature, a frieze continues above the ground floor, with square carved panels with one of two foliate designs.

In the middle three bays on the avenue, the 2nd & 3rd floors have paired windows with double-height flat pilasters with small Corinthian capitals; the windows are round-arched at the 3rd floor and have medallions with shields above and between the arches. There are black marble spandrels between the two floors, edged with a cross-hatch pattern and dentils on top. The end bays have paired square-headed windows on both floors, narrower on the 2nd floor where they have stone surrounds with shields at the tops; there are rectangular foliate carved panels between the 2nd- & 3rd-floor windows, and the 3rd-floor windows have narrow dentiled sills. A narrow dentiled cornice caps the base on the avenue. The north facade also has the frieze with the same two types of carved panels, interspersed with outlined panels with rosettes between the paired windows of the end bays, and below each pier at the 7-bay center section. This section matches the 2nd-3rd floors on the west facade, but with seven single-bays instead of three sets of paired windows. It is topped by stone balustrades marking the setback in the middle of the north facade. The end bays also match those on the avenue, with the eastern ones slightly set back from the rest of the lower facade.

The brick upper floors have paired windows in every bay of the main facades; the inward-facing side walls created by the recessed central portion on the north facade have paired windows at the west (east facing)side, and single-windows at the east (west-facing) side. The windows all have stone sills. The corner piers of the projecting east and west wings are lined with small projecting bricks. On the west facade, the piers around the end bays project slightly and are also lined with small projecting bricks. Additionally, the spandrels between each window have a single projecting brick cross-shape. A corbel band runs across the 10th floor at the north facade's east and west wings, and the whole west facade, where there is a setback at the middle three bays. In the middle section of the north facade the corbel course is replaced by wider sills, each decorated by a small gargoyle head. Both facades are deeply set back above the 12th floor, where there are larger corbel courses at he end bays. In the recessed center sections, the spandrels above the 12th-floor windows have carved patterns above dentiled lintels, and projecting stone accents above incised rectangles ornament the tops of the piers. On the north facade, the 13th-14th floors extend vertically before setting back, capped by three blind arches above each window and stone coping.

Above the 12th floor, the west facade has four windows in the middle section, flanked by paired windows at the ends. The wider north facade still has seven windows in the center section, with two bays of paired windows at the east end, and one bay of paired windows with one bay of single-windows at the west end. Both main facades set back again above the 16th floor, marked by corbel courses of various sizes, stone coping, and two projecting, angled-sided stone balconies framing the middle section of both facades.

The upper shaft of the tower continues as five bays of single-windows at the west facade (plus a south bay of paired windows that only extends up to the 18th floor), and six bays of single-windows in the middle of the north facade, flanked by a bay of paired windows at each end. At the 21st floor the middle bays of both facades are topped by corbelled stone panels, while the end bays have small stone panels matching those between the windows of the 2nd-3rd floors. The middle bays of the 22nd-23rd floors are grouped together in 2-story stone surrounds that include wide rope moldings at the sides and round-arched 23rd-floor windows under stone pointed-arches; the piers between each of these round-arched windows has a heraldic stone shield, and there are spandrels of grey-brown stone blocks between the windows of the two floors. The slightly-smaller end bay windows at the 23rd floor are pointed-arched, with stone sills and brick lintels. There are narrow openings with stone sills above them, with tall stone parapets with triangle patterns capping the end bays. Above the top-floor windows in the middle bays are dentil bands, and projecting gargoyles; on the west facade a feline gargoyle in the center flanked by two dragon gargoyles; and on the north facade, a row of five alternating grotesque humanesque faces flanked by another pair of dragon gargoyles. Above these, each facade sets slightly back to a sloping, brown metal mansard roof, at the base of which the piers are crowned by larger gargoyles in various poses.

The Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. was founded as Farmers' Life Insurance & Loan Co. in 1822. The name changed to Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. in 1836. The bank was located in the Wall St. area (either on Wall St. or Exchange Place) from the 1840s until 1883. In 1883 they commissioned a new building at 20 William Street near Beaver Street (architect, Thomas Stent). This building was torn down and replaced in 1889 by a structure referred to by the addresses 16, 18, 20 and 22 William Street. In 1929 Farmers' purchased the Trust National City Bank of New York and changed their name to City Bank Farmers Trust Company. It was City Bank Farmers Trust who erected the 60-story skyscraper that now stands on the block bounded by Exchange Place, William, Beaver and Hanover streets (Cross & Cross, 1931). The building at 475 Fifth Avenue is now occupied by a variety of tenants. The ground floor is occupied by Deciem Beauty Company, and MUJI Fifth Avenue apparel and home goods.

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