A One Of A KInd Architectural Wonder--Farmers' And Exchange Bank

East Bay Street, from the Old City Market to Broad Street, is one of the busiest pedestrian
thoroughfares in Charleston aside from Meeting and King Street. Its walkways are the commercial lifeline of the famous French Quarter. Tourists and locals on any given day flood the many eateries, galleries, and shops housed in the numerous old buildings overlooking this concrete river. Among its numerous architectural wonders stands a one of a kind. You no doubt have walked past it many times just throwing it a passing glance and not giving it a second thought. But, if you were to stop, take an inquisitive gaze at it for a few moments, you will gain another perspective. It is a surviving reminder of the beautifully diverse history that makes Charleston what it is today.

Located on the west side of East Bay Street near the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, this peculiar two-story masonry building, built out of brick and varying shades of brownstone--one a solemn tone from Connecticut and the other a soft hue from New Jersey, is exceptionally different. Architecturally designed in the most flamboyant of the nineteenth-century exotic revivals, its motif was a radical departure from the traditionally favored styled buildings of similar institutions.

Its main facade is dominated by three distinct but identical sections with muqarnas features. Its three first floor entrances are trimmed by a trefoil arch with intricately carved double doors featuring decorative iron work and topped by large, circular windows with an inlaid daisy pattern. The second-floor has three large multi-pane fixed windows with the upper circular portion edged in a Moorish inspired scalloped design. The roof line is lined with a double rowed horseshoe-shaped entablature and topped off with a sheet metal roof and a Spanish and Moorish style muqarnas dome. The rear wing has the conventional Classical Revival style. There are two chimneys in the rear. On the interior, there is pine board flooring and a paved vestibule leading to the main banking room. This opulent space is twenty-one feet wide and nearly fifty feet in length and features arcade walls, elaborate plaster ornamentation, and a coffered ceiling and skylight.

Farmers' and Exchange Bank was chartered on December 16, 1852. The design of the building was the work of architects Edward C. Jones and Francis D. Lee. Its construction began in 1853 with its completion in 1854. Their design is thought to have been influenced by illustrations from Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra, a book about his three-month stay at a Moorish palace in 1829. It was published around the time the building was constructed.

Alhambra Castle--you can see the similarities in architecture.

The Farmers' and Exchange Bank's denominations ranged from $5 - $100. Both the $5 and the $10 notes from this bank depicted scenes of the antebellum South. In the 1860's, the Federal bombardment of Charleston forced the bank to move to Columbia. The Civil War took a toll on the bank and in time, it closed. Overtime, the building was used as a telegraph office by Western Union. U.S. Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings once owned the building and used it for office space. The structure was considered for demolition in the early 1970s due to deterioration, but Charleston banker Hugh Lane Sr. contributed $50,000 toward its restoration. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on November 7, 1973.

In the 1990's, it became home for the Saracen restaurant and a second floor drinking establishment called Little Charlie's Bar. In time, the restaurant closed, but the bar remained. The bar was rumored to be a den of drugs and money-laundering and described as being "smoky, full of slutty college chicks and horny frat guys. A place where the bartenders played favorites with the beautiful people, the music was all over the map," and a few other things I will leave unmentioned. Charlie's Little Bar closed in 2005.

The Balish Family purchased the building in that same year. They owned restaurants in Savannah called The Olde Pink House and Garibaldi and for three decades, Charleston's Garibaldi Cafe at 49 S. Market Street. It was renowned for serving crispy flounder to tourists and locals alike. The restaurant closed after 33 years because its lease had expired, so they were looking for a new space to locate their restaurant. They were considering two locations--a vacant waterfront lot they owned on Concord Street beside Dockside Condominiums or the recently purchased iconic Farmers' and Exchange building.

They chose the iconic building and planned on calling it Farmers and Exchange Restaurant, which had a planned opening in late 2015. So far, it has not come to fruition and the building remains eerily quiet except for some spurious activity from time to time.

The Farmers' and Exchange building at 141 East Bay Street is one of the few surviving Moorish Revival structures in the United States, and Charleston has it.