Designed by noted Philadelphia architect Frank Furness and significant in his artistic development, it was built in 1876 as the headquarters of the eponymous bank that would be the fiscal agent of the Centennial Exposition.

Architect Frank Furness, who had just parted ways with business partner George Hewitt, received the commission due to personal connections with the directors.

The bank obtained a monopoly over handling ticket receipts and currency exchanges for the Centennial Exposition, which opened on the Fourth of July to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of American independence, and operated a branch on the fairgrounds.

[5]: 285 ) He had worked previously on one of his most successful bank designs, the Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company,[6] with his partner George Hewitt.

[7]: 119–122 Strategically located at the corner of 32nd and Market streets, a building on the site would terminate the line of sight along the diagonal Lancaster Avenue, which led to the Exhibition grounds in West Fairmount Park.

[15] The Centennial National Bank's Venetian Gothic[3] design by Frank Furness is considered, "a good example of his developing style," with the exterior retaining its original character though it has been altered.

[9] Shortly after construction, the building was described in an architectural magazine: The building is of red pressed brick, with bands of black brick, and brown sandstone dressings,[i] standing on the corner of 32nd Street, the angle is cut away to form the entrance: this is a sort of shallow porch which is carried up to height of the roof, finishing in a sort of crooked gable, the tympanum of the arch just under this gable been decorated with the same character of brilliant glass tiles, sparkling with gold and color, which were used in the front of the Academy of the Fine Arts.

The windows, which have pointed segmental heads of brick with sandstone skewbacks,[ii] appear quite large, and are so much wider in proportion to their length than one is accustomed to seeing that the small size of the building is rendered much more apparent.The method for making the "brilliant glass tiles" referred was invented by Furness himself.

[2] The building was renovated in 2000-02 (under Voith & Mactavish Architects[2]) to make it an alumni center for Drexel University, at a cost of $4 million,[8] equivalent to $7,077,101 in 2023.