Banco Mercantil Venezuela

 bank, landmark, historical building

5-story Italian-Renaissance office building completed in 1906 as a mansion. Designed by John H. Duncan for John Peirce, it is clad in light-grey granite, a fitting choice given that Peirce originally made his fortune in granite quarries. The granite facade is rusticated on the lower three floors.

The entrance, up a few steps from the sidewalk, is centered below a graceful cast-iron balcony. Ornate bronze double-doors (overlaid with a delicately filigreed bronze grille) are framed by a patterned molding, with a medallion at the top surrounded by carved acanthus leaves. Window openings on either side have the same delicately filigreed bronze grilles as the doors. The 2nd-floor balcony is carried on a pair of scrolled brackets, and fronts a pair of round-arched windows, both topped by scaled, scrolled keystones and wreaths. Three projecting flagpoles now flanks these window openings. The 3rd floor has a pair of square-headed windows and is capped by a modillioned cornice.

The 4th & 5th floors are faced in smooth ashlar instead of continuing the rustication of the lower floors. The 4th floor has two round-arched windows, smaller than the large ones at the 2nd floor, topped by a pair of scrolled keystones. The 5th floor has three square-headed windows, with wreaths at the ends. The facade is topped by a stone cornice with brackets, an egg-and-dart molding, and dentils.

On January 14, 1914 the house was used for the last time by the Peirces. On February 18, 1915 Peirce lost the property for good when The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company purchased it at foreclosure. It became home to an exclusive girl’s school, called The Gardner School for Girls. In 1937 Pagano Studio bought the property, and hired architect Frank S. Parker to renovated the house to accommodate photography studios, dressing rooms and offices. The mansion was converted again in 1948; this time to offices for a single tenant. Today the building is home to Banco Mercantil Venezuela. It is a designated New York City landmark.

Banco Mercantil or simply Mercantil is a Venezuelan financial institution based in Caracas, the second largest bank in the country.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/12/1906-john-peirce...
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2327.pdf