Bank House
119 N. Walnut St., Milford, DEThe Bank House is important as an example of a departed commercial custom, as well as being an architecturally outstanding building of the Greek Revival style in Milford. Planned and begun as a banking house for the short-lived Bank of Milford, its design carries out the practical purpose of serving as both a banking house and as a dwelling. At the time of its building, it was customary for the cashier of a bank and his family to live in the bank building, thus giving protection to the deposits housed there. Evidence of the plan for a bank shows in two places; namely, vestiges of a brick vault in the basement, and the original plan for a door on the south side front, now a window.
When the bank was closed on March 2, 1855 by an act of the General Assembly, the building was incomplete. Later that year, the unfinished building was sold at a sheriff's sale to the farmers' Bank of the State of Delaware which, a year later, sold it to a local physician, Dr. James R. Mitchell, who completed the building for use as his residence and medical office.
Alonzo Reynolds, the architect, was from Port Deposit, Maryland. Among his other work is the old county office building in Dover, now a state office. The Bank House exemplifies the fine detailing for which he became known. As this house has been kept so much intact, it is surely one of the best known examples of Reynold's work.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.