Still very much original, the Wasmansdorff and Eastman designed Bank Electric Block was built to house the First National Bank of Lewiston and the offices of the Montana Power Company. One of the largest buildings to line Lewistown's Main Street, the four story flat roofed masonry structure was built by the Seerie Brothers of Denver, Colorado.
Though not extravagantly embellished, the building was given its fair share of terra cotta trim, mostly in a beltline at dividing the ground and second floors and at the cornice, plus terra cotta frames surrounding the windows of the upper four stores. At the cornice are terra cotta panels at each corner of the building, each with a pair of lion's heads, the lions carrying square linked chains in their mouths. There is a total of ten lions dispersed around three sides of the building. Above, the overhanging cornice has several bands of decorated terra cotta blocks and tiles. At the roof is a low parapet of terra cotta blocks or bricks with tombstone-like decorative pieces every few feet. The parapet's corners have projecting seashell-like mouldings.
The section of the Lewistown Central Business Historic District NRHP Nomination Form for the building indicates that one of the partners in the building was the Montana Power Company and that the first owner was the National Realty Co. of Lewistown. Newspaper articles of the time tend to indicate otherwise, stating that:
President David Hilger, of the First National Bank, Sunday received a telegram from the head officers of the Lewistown Electric & Power company in New York stating that they have approved the plans, submitted by the First National here, for the construction of a modern business block in this city, to be occupied by the bank and the power company...
...Mr. Johnson and myself personally took up the matter with the Lewistown Electric & Power company, whom, we were informed, had in mind the erection of a building for its own use. After several trips to Butte and Great ralls and conference with Mr. Hebgen and others largely interested in the power company, we have at last secured their agreement to co-operate with the bank in the construction of the building.
From the Fergus County Democrat
This is the original newspaper ad produced by the building when it was completed, listing and providing a bit of free advertising for all the businesses which initially occupied the building. It was placed on Page 6 of the June 11, 1914 issue of the Fergus County Democrat.
