The First National Building - Oklahoma City, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 28.095 W 097° 30.969
14S E 634632 N 3925983
When built in 1931 this building was said to be the fourth tallest building West of the Mississippi.
Waymark Code: WMB5WP
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 04/09/2011
Views: 5
"The FIRST NATIONAL BUILDING, 120 N. Robinson St., 32 stories
(447 feet) high, is the largest bank-office structure in the state. It occupies an area of 140 by 200 feet for the first 13 stories, then rises 19 additional stories as an approximately square tower. Of functional modern design, its exterior facing is polished black granite to the second-floor windows, and Bedford limestone above. The trim is made up of aluminum cast panels, grilles and ornaments, aluminum sand-blasted spandrels, and polished extruded aluminum window jambs. More aluminum was used in the building than in any
other in the United States up to the time it was erected.
"The 32d story is an enclosed observation platform, from which rises an
aluminum-sheathed airplane beacon tower in which a light of two million candle power can be seen by flyers from a distance of 75 miles. On occasions, the exterior of the main tower building is illuminated at night by floodlights. The main banking room of the First National Bank, on the second floor, is elaborately designed, with a pavement of Italian marble. On the walls are enlarged reproductions of ancient coins, among them a silver coin minted
at Antioch between 83 and 69 b.c, a Byzantine coin minted at Constantinople between 857 and 867 a.d., and a coin of Macedonia minted, probably, about 150 B.C. This room also has four large murals by Edgar Spier Cameron, of Chicago, two of which depict the Run of 1889, another the Louisiana Purchase, and the fourth the Cherokee tribe coming to Oklahoma. The last named was first entitled The Trail of Sorrow, but when someone noticed that it was over the door of the loan department of the bank the title was changed to Sunset Trail. The murals are painstakingly executed, and figures hardly visible from the floor are said to be draped in the authentic costumes of the period—except that the Cherokee Indians are represented as wearing
war bonnets of the Plains tribes." [A Guide to the Sooner State, 1941.]
Constructed in 1931 by the First National Bank & Trust, this 990,000 square foot office building was the tallest building in Oklahoma City until the building of the Liberty Tower in 1971. It will become the third tallest building this year with the construction of the 50-story Devon Tower.
The first 22 floors of the building comprise the Base, with a series of three setbacks of the floors above that, giving the building a tapered look. It has a strong resemblance to the Empire State Building. The ground floor level is faced with polished black marble up to the second floor windows. Above that the building is faced with Bedford limestone. The west elevation facing Robinson Avenue has several windows trimmed in cast aluminum panels with Art Deco themes, such as nudes, birds and floral in bas relief. Cast aluminum grills accentuate the transom above the West entrance and over the second floor windows. Two large light fixtures flank this west entrance and the northwest corner of the building has a large cast aluminum clock mounted on the building.
The building has numerous tenants on all floors. The building is currently known as the First National Center.