Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company Building
| Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company Building | |
|---|---|
| |
| Site Information | |
| Address | 202 East Redwood St |
| Geo-reference | 39°17′21″N 76°36′43″W / 39.2891°N 76.61197°W |
| Owner | Chesapeake Shakespeare Company |
| Building Data | |
| Building Type | Commercial |
| Architectural Style | Romanesque |
| Design | |
| Architect | James Bosley Noel Wyatt |
| Architecture Firm | Wyatt & Sperry |
| Construction | |
| Completed | 1885 |
Architecture
The Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company Building is a brick building with stone ornamentation. The Romanesque influence can be seen in the building’s characteristically heavy weight and massiveness, an effect reinforced by squat columns with foliated capitals; deeply set windows, some with rounded arches, some in groups with straight tops; foliated and smooth stone belt courses; and parapeted gables. The interior once featured a large banking room with a balcony overlooking it, Corinthian columns, and walls covered in ornate plasterwork.
Architects
The building was designed by James Bosley Noel Wyatt and Joseph Evans Sperry. Wyatt & Sperry was a firm formed around 1878. Each of them had previously worked under E. Francis Baldwin, and Wyatt & Sperry went on to exist from about 1878 to 1887. Both men noted the pride they took in this building even after the firm dissolved. A drawing done by Joseph Evans Sperry was published in the January 15, 1876 issue of American Architect and Building News, the periodical's first month of circulation.
Occupants
When the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company opened in 1886, the building was praised for its fire-and-burglar-proof vaults. There was also a separate vault in the building for women to have privacy when managing their deposits. The bank pioneered the concept of trust management and went on to shape major industries in Baltimore and beyond. In 2014, the building was converted into a theater by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, and their mission is to “blow the dust off of Shakespeare and delight.”
