Greensboro Loan & Trust Banking House, 319 South Elm Street

Towering over South Elm Street in Greensboro, the Greensboro Loan and Trust Banking House is an excellent example of Renaissance Revival architecture by Charlotte architects Hook and Sawyer. Begun in the summer of 1900, it is one of the earliest high-styled commercial facades in the city and represents an influence of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 that promoted the use of Classical Revival architecture for monumental civic structures. This building evokes Renaissance period designs of Italy with its classical ornament, including banded brickwork with raised joints, broken pediments of stone above windows, along with wreathed windows and a heavy acanthus leaf modillion cornice. The design attracted attention in Greensboro when it was announced "the front will be of granite and white brick of special design, different from anything in the city."

The firm of Hook and Sawyer was formed by architect C. C. Hook and and New Yorker Frank McMurray Sawyer. It operated from 1898 to 1905 and completed over 100 projects. Greensboro Loan and Trust Company was chartered in 1899 with Captain J. W. Frye, the former general manager of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad as its president. Within five years of its founding, the institution held the fifth highest deposits and assets in the state. Private.

Style: Neoclassical Revival. Listed to the National Register of Historic Places April 1980. Local Landmark Property since April 1992.