90-100 Main Street (Hunterdon County National Bank)

Built in 1864, this is Flemington’s first example of the monumental Italianate style. The original brick arcades on the first floor were replaced with terracotta and granite facade in the 1920’s. Above, tall arched windows march across the brick walls, set between projecting pilasters. Contrary to the flat cornice of the normal Italiante style, the roof sweeps up to a central peak, and a bullseye window punctuates the tall attic.

Hunterdon’s first bank was founded in 1854 and chartered in 1865 when George C Hopewell finished construction of this fine new building for its headquarters. Hopewell Hall as it was known, is similar to the contemporary Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., which gained notoriety at the time as the place where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.

In 1937 Flemington slashed its corporate tax rates after the banks president George K Large persuaded Standard Oil’s owner John D Rockefeller (his distant cousin, and America’s richest man) to make him its agent for tax purposes in New Jersey. 140 other corporations shortly followed to make Flemington a short-lived tax haven. Tax laws have changed, and many corporations have since moved but some are still technically located in Flemington.