142.PL 519 Twenty-third Avenue. Merchants and Farmers Bank. 1924 Sullivanesque

(previously listed as element #94 - contributing - in the Meridian Urban Center Historic District) Two story, brick commercial building with flat roof of tar composition, terra cotta cornice, storefront with central double leaf, plate glass doors, transom and flanking 1/1 double hung sash windows, clerestory, terra cotta lintel and tympanum and surround, brick belt course, terra cotta corner ornaments. This building was built with the form and elaborate terra cotta embellishment reminiscent of the work of Louis Sullivan (1886-1924). Sullivan was a world-renowned architect who worked primarily out of Chicago. Between 1906-1920 Sullivan moved beyond Chicago to work in smaller towns on his rural bank series (Weingarden, 1987).   Of these eight banks, the Meridian bank is comparable to Sullivan's bank in Columbus, Wisconsin. Both buildings originally housed Farmers and Merchants Banks. The Columbus edifice, built between 1919 and 1920, sports an elaborate terra cotta embellishment over the storefront entrance with an arched window above it. Meridian's Merchants bank has a similar design, including a storefront entrance with a terra cotta tympanum. This shape echoes the arched window of the Columbus bank.