Historic First Bank of the United States reopens with a grand $43M remodel in time for July 4

The First Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, one of Alexander Hamilton’s signature achievements, has undergone a $43 million renovation and will be open to the public for the first time in more than 20 years starting Wednesday.

The ribbon cutting at the building on the west side of Third Street near Chestnut comes just in time for 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this weekend.

Visitors will be able to walk through the grand rotunda and look up at the barrel-vaulted golden ceiling, lit by 240 painstakingly cleaned panes of glass around a central skylight.

“I’m excited to see how visitors connect to the space,” said Steven Simms, superintendent of Independence National Historical Park. “The National Park Service can talk about what’s important all day long, but what really matters is what’s relevant to our visitors.”

Simms said the interior before the renovation was dark and dingy, marred by an old carpet that covered the marble floor. The entire interior has been painted and the ceiling restored.

The air-conditioning, electrical, lighting and other systems had to be replaced and brought up to code.

The National Park Service also built an addition on the back, which serves as a public entrance. It includes an elevator and modern bathrooms, complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The original budget for the restoration was about $30 million. But higher asbestos levels, issues with soil borings, and installation of a new stormwater management system so roof drainage would be filtered caused that total to rise.

In all, $39.3 million for the project came from the federal Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund, and the Independence Historical Trust contributed $4.5 million.

Jonathan Burton, director of development for the trust, said Chadds Ford-based John Milner Architects reimagined the interior of the First Bank, bringing it more in line with the vision held by Philadelphian Stephen Girard, who took over the bank in 1812. West Chester-based Bedwell Co. was the contractor.

“This national historic landmark is now pristine,” Burton said. “It’s completely updated, with all new mechanical systems. It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Two temporary exhibits, containing rare artifacts, will fill the interior until a permanent exhibit on the bank’s mission — to create a national financial system for the United States — is finished.

Rosalind Remer, Drexel University’s senior vice provost for collections and exhibitions, said the temporary exhibit from the Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel is designed to focus on souvenirs and art collected from the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the Bicentennial.

The America on the World Stage exhibit includes two chairs from the Chinese Pavilion at the exposition and a Bicentennial lamp with glass panes of the American flag and Liberty Bell.

Glyn Davies, a retired U.S. ambassador and a consultant to the U.S. State Department, said the Marks of Friendship exhibit commemorates 250 years of U.S. diplomatic treasures.

The exhibit includes an ornate Louis XVI-style mantel clock gilded in bronze from the U.S. embassy in Paris and dated to about 1725, as well as Philadelphia painter Charles Willson Peale’s 1779 portrait of George Washington in Princeton.

The bank was key to Alexander Hamilton’s push to give the fledgling federal government authority to handle its poor financial situation.

It’s one of the nation’s first notable examples of Classical monumental design, which contains proportions and geometries of ancient Greece and Rome on a grand scale.

Completed in 1797, the three-story brick structure with a marble front and trim has a seven-bay marble facade, built by Claudius F. LeGrand & Sons, stone workers, woodcarvers, and guilders. The builders used Pennsylvania blue marble quarried from Montgomery County.

The decorative entrance, restored in 1983, contains elaborate mahogany carvings of an eagle grasping a shield of 13 stripes and stars and standing on a globe festooned with an olive branch.

The entrance is topped by a marble keystone that depicts Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, finance, and merchants.

The entire exterior has been repointed and damaged areas were fixed. The eagle sculpture also had to be repaired as part of the new renovations.

Inside, the center is defined by a circular Corinthian columned rotunda on the first and second floors.

The original cellar retains its 1795 stone-walled and brick-vaulted rooms, some still having their original sheet iron vault doors.

First Bank has a long and storied history for both the U.S. and Philadelphia.

At the time of Hamilton’s push for a bank, the U.S. had no national currency, and banks issued their own notes. The notion of a national bank ignited a heated national debate.

Thomas Jefferson, who penned the Declaration of Independence just a few blocks away, was originally against the bank but later used it to finance the Louisiana Purchase. The bank’s initial 20-year charter lapsed in 1811.

Philadelphia merchant Girard bought the bank in 1812. After Girard’s death, another bank purchased the building in 1832 and called itself Girard Bank to capitalize on its namesake’s financial fame.

In 1902, the Girard Bank hired architect James Windrim to remodel the interior. He removed the original barrel-vaulted ceiling and installed a skylight over a glass-paned done to give tellers more light.

The bank was vacated in 1929 and languished until the National Park Service purchased it in 1955 as part of Independence National Historical Park.

The building served as the park’s visitor center until 1976, underwent some restoration, and was open in time for the Bicentennial in 1976. It was open off and on until being closed in 2002 — until now.