Farmers and Merchants Bank

Contributors:
Benton and Benton, architects; Charles C. Benton, Sr., architect; Frank W. Benton, architect
Dates:

1924

Location:
Kinston, Lenoir County
Street Address:

200 N. Queen St., Kinston, NC

Status:

Standing

Type:

Commercial

Images Published In:

M. Ruth Little, Coastal Plain and Fancy: The Historic Architecture of Lenoir County and Kinston, North Carolina (1998).

Note:

The lower portion of the bank displays an Ionic-columned entrance in antis typical of the firm’s banks of the period, but the building’s 5-story height reads as a small skyscraper, unusual in eastern North Carolina’s small towns and indicative of Kinston’s stature as a market town. In its day it was the tallest structure in town. Local accounts indicate that the building had the first registered elevator in the state, designated Elevator No. 1 by the State of North Carolina. The postcard view of Queen St. shows the bank as the tallest building on the left side of the street.