First National Bank Building

The First National Bank Building at 823 East Main Street is a 19-story tower designed in Classical Revival style with materials of brick, limestone, and granite arranged across its facade. The building occupies a corner lot in the downtown area with a clear vertical composition of floors and ornamental stonework at key levels.

The tower was built between 1912 and 1913 under architect Alfred Bossom's design and served as Richmond's first high-rise office structure in the downtown area. It gained its National Register listing in 1982 when the city recognized its importance to the local architecture history.

The building displays early 20th-century banking design through its elaborate Corinthian columns and decorative stonework that visitors can see on the facade and inside. These details reflect how important banks were to the city's economy and identity at that time.

The building sits at the corner of Main Street and 9th Street in the downtown core and is easily spotted from the street. Visitors can walk around the exterior to see the stonework and architectural details, and the location puts you near other historic buildings worth exploring.

The tower retains its original steel frame construction from the early 1900s, a building method that was cutting-edge for creating tall structures at that time. This technique allowed builders to reach greater heights while distributing the weight efficiently throughout the structure.