Boise City National Bank
a.k.a. Simplot Building
8th and Idaho Sts., Boise, IDThe Boise City National Bank is architecturally significant as one of the best extant commercial examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style in the west. Constructed of Boise sandstone quarried at Tablerock, and erected three years after Richardson's Marshall Field Warehouse in Chicago, this bank building is an outstanding local landmark.
Originally the bank was to be a $13,000 structure, but architect James King convinced the bank trustees that a more substantial building should be erected. Thus $40,000 was allocated for the construction of this building whose style and 20-inch sandstone walls were "to give an idea of solidity, strength, and permanence."
James King was an important Boise architect of the 1890s. He designed the National Register Moore-Cunningham house and the walls and administration building of the state penitentiary. The Boise City National Bank is the only surviving example of his commercial work.
Tourtellotte and Co., the foremost architects of their period in Boise, designed the 1904-05 addition and the 1913 remodeling. Both these alterations maintained the original building's spirit and appearance, and the crenelated parapet is a distinct enhancement of the original. (Charles Hummel, its designer, was German-born and trained.)
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.