Germania Bank Building (New York City)

The Bowery and Spring Street facades are both clad in Maine granite, with the original public spaces contained in a rusticated base with large, deep-set windows surmounted by rounded arches.

At the roofline is a copper parapet, in the style of a classical sima, which features anthemia, rosettes, and waves and would have been noticeable including from elevated trains.

Both porticos have free-standing Tuscan columns and elaborate wrought-iron gates; the main doorway also has paneled pilasters on either side and is topped by an arched transom.

[3][4] During the middle decades of the 19th century, rising numbers of German immigrants in New York led to the development of a neighborhood called Kleindeutschland or Little Germany, which became the most important German-American center in the United States.

To accommodate continued growth, in December 1896 the bank bought three lots at the northwest corner of the Bowery and Spring Street.

Plans for a new freestanding, fireproof building were filed on January 3, 1898; it was designed by the German-born architect Robert Maynicke and is considered one of his major works.

The bank had already opened for public inspection on December 28, 1898, and for business on January 3, 1899, the one-year anniversary of the plans being filed.

Starting in 1923 with the opening of a branch on Lexington Avenue, Commonwealth expanded to other parts of Manhattan and to the Bronx and Brooklyn.