Seven stories of brick and stone at 50-58 State House Square make up the First National Bank Building, in the heart of Downtown Hartford, Connecticut. This historic commercial building was built in 1899 and was designed by Ernest Flagg, a New York City architect. It was one of the first of Hartford's commercial buildings to have a steel frame, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The building rises seven stories as a masonry structure; its exterior walls are faced in brick and stone on a frame of steel columns with reinforcing brick vaulted arches. The principal facade is one of the city's finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture: three bays wide, with the main entrance in the leftmost bay. The bottom and the top two floors are each treated distinctively, while the central three bays are grouped in tall openings topped by rounded arches and an elaborate cornice.
Stand close and let the brick and stone speak to the building's design and materials. Notice the elaborate cornice up top, the entrance tucked into the leftmost bay, and the Old State House it faces across the square.