Fidelity and Deposit Company

In 1890, American businessperson Edwin Warfield founded the Fidelity and Deposit Company, where he served as president until his death in 1920.

[3] The building was designed by the prominent local architectural firm of Baldwin & Pennington,[3] composed of leading regional designers Ephraim Francis Baldwin and Josias Pennington - main "house architects" for stations and structures of the dominant Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

[3] The building originally contained eight floors with a façade of grey granite, corner cupola tower and mansard roof.

Following the initial reconstruction phase of 1905–1910, when several recently built downtown towers were burned out, but their steel skeletons and concrete foundations/floors and floors survived structurally sound and were rebuilt with new interiors and masonry facades.

So F. & D. under the leadership of founder and president Warfield made arrangements between 1912 and 1915, reflecting the continued growth of the company to add seven more floors were added to the top of the building, increasing the number of floors to fifteen, with the upper storied covered with a surface of terra-cotta, matching the style of the original architecture below.