Some cool banks images:

DC – Georgetown: Riggs Bank


Image by wallyg
The old Farmers and Mechanics Branch of Riggs Bank, at 1201 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, on the corner of M Street, was built in 1921-22. Located at the major commercial intersection of Georgetown, the gold-leafed dome and neoclassical design by Marsh and Peter have become familiar symbols of the Georgetown neighborhood. Today it is a PNC Bank branch.

Riggs National Bank is the oldest continuously operating bank in Washington, dating to 1836 when William Wilson Corcoran opened a note brokerage house. In 1840, he entered into a partnership with George Washington Riggs, Jr., son of a prominent New York banker, offering checking and depositing services Corcoran & Riggs Bank became an official depository of the U.S. treasury, began overseas transactions and helped finance Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph in 1845, and the Mexican War in 1847. Corcoran retired in 1854 and the firm became Riggs & Company. George Riggs led the 1867 syndicate that raised .2 million in gold bullion for the Alaska Purchase. In the 1920s, Riggs National Bank introduced savings accounts, opened a trust department, and purchased two other local banks, creating a branch banking network. In 1930, the firm acquired the Famrers of and Mechanics Bank of Georgetown, a congressionally chartered bank established in February 1814, which helped finance the War of 1812. After several notable scandals dealing with the embassy business in the early 2000s, Riggs Bank was bought by PNC for 9 million on July 16, 2004.

Twenty-two U.S. Presidents or their families banked at Riggs, including John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Accounts were also held by Senators Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Douglas MacArthur.

The Georgetown Historic District, roughly bounded by Reservoir Rd., NW, and Dumbarton Oaks Park on the north; Rock Creek Park on the east; the Potomac River on the south; and Glover-Archbold Parkway on the west, encompassses the area laid out as a prosperous port town in 1751 prior to the establishment of the Distrcict of Columbia, and later assimilated into the city of Washington in 1871. Today, the primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, which contain high-end shops, bars, and restaurants. Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University, the Old Stone House, the oldest standing building in Washington, and the embassies of France, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, and Ukraine.

Georgetown Historic District National Register #67000025 (1967)

Banco de España / Bank of Spain


Image by ajgelado
Zamora, 19/2/2008. Antiguo edificio del Banco de España, ahora sede de la central en Zamora de Caja Duero.

Former building of Bank of Spain in Zamora, now the headquarters of Caja Duero.