City Directories and History: FARMERS’ AND EXCHANGE BANK
0 Constructed 1873-74; rehabilitated 1970, 1990
Francis D. Lee, architect; David Lopez and C. C. Trumbo, contractors
*** David Lopez was the father of builder John H. Lopez, who conducted business separately as a builder – contractor. The S.C. Artisans Database lists one David Lopez as also a “sash and door” manufacturer, age 40 in 1850. Mr. C.C. Trumbo is also listed as a builder in 1850 from Maryland and in 1860 working as a mason, living in Ward #2, at age 40.
“Designed in the Moorish Revival style by architect Francis D. Lee, who called it “Saracenic” in style, this building exemplifies eclecticism in the Victorian age. Muquarnas, commonly referred to as honeycomb vaulting, form the mass of the cornice, while horseshoe arches (compared to the Alcazar at Seville and the Mosque at Cordoba) and red sandstone work with striping balance the ornamented facade of this structure. Interior architectural elements in its original two-story counting room with its coffered ceiling also represent the eclecticism reflected on the exterior facade. The building’s appealing features stood in contrast to the Roman Doric-columned bank next door, designed by Lee’s former partner Edward Jones but demolished in the 1950s. The author William Gilmore Simms described Lee’s building as a “toy box sitting under the eaves” of Jones’s “Tower of Babel.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
Other sources of interest: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61, and the Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917. The HCF may also have additional data at: Past Perfect and further research can be uncovered at: Charleston 1861 Census Schedule
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