Founded in 1827, the bank relocated several times before it moved to a building designed by prominent Brooklyn architect Frank Freeman in 1894.

After the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, city planners decided to build a "grand avenue" leading to the approach of the bridge, and as the resulting plans entailed demolition of part of the Brooklyn Savings Bank in Liberty Street, the Bank's directors resolved to move to a new location.

[1] The location chosen by the directors as the most appropriate for their new premises was the northeast corner of Clinton and Pierrepont Streets in Brooklyn,[2] then occupied by the First Baptist Church.

Though initially reluctant to move, the parishioners were eventually persuaded by an offer of $200,000, and the church was subsequently demolished to make way for the new bank.

Like many other American architects of the day, Freeman was quick to adapt, and the Brooklyn Savings Bank would become one of his first neoclassical designs.

[1] The main entrance, on the Clinton St. side, featured a "grand recessed porch", 20 by 25 feet in size, containing a bold Roman arch flanked by red granite columns.

[9] The Pierrepont St. side featured a tall, central loggia, topped by a triangular pediment supported by columns, and flanked by a pair of transepts with stained glass windows, in which the private offices of the bank were located.