The Trust Condos -139 South Tryon Street Charlotte NC 28202
The Home Federal Savings and Loan Building, erected in 1967, possesses local historical
importance because it illustrates Charlotte's growing significance as an urban place and
major financial center in the decades after World War II. The savings bank was founded in
Charlotte in 1883, and expanded rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century,
reflecting the city's emergence as a thriving regional metropolitan center and financial
hub. Completed in 1967, Home Federal's seven-story headquarters on South Tryon Street
expressed the bank's growing status as a lending institution in the heart of Charlotte's
booming financial district in the postwar decades.
Charlotte-based Home Federal Savings and Loan began in 1883 as the Mechanics Perpetual
Building and Loan Association. Samuel Wittkowsky, a Prussian immigrant of Jewish descent
who owned a successful general merchandise store in Charlotte, founded the business with
a group of local investors. Originally, the Association offered only home mortgages, but
over time it expanded lending services to homebuilders and contractors, and offered
saving accounts to individuals. In 1943 Mechanics Perpetual replaced its state charter with
a federal charter and changed its name to Home Federal Savings and Loan. During the
decades after World War II, Charlotte expanded at a remarkable pace, nearing a
population of 200,000 by 1960, and Home Federal and other financial institutions grew and
prospered. The assets of Home Federal increased from $3,000,000 in 1943 to $19,000,000
in 1955. Between 1950 and 1954, the savings bank made 5,700 loans to homebuyers and
building contractors. In 1962, Home Federal opened Charlotte's first savings and loan
branch, strategically located in the booming southeastern outskirts of the city, in the new
Park Road Shopping Center (Charlotte News March 3, 1983).
In 1955 Home Federal Savings and Loan relocated from the 100 block of East Fourth Street
to 139 South Tryon Street. At the time, the site was occupied by the Buford Hotel Building,
which the Association purchased for $400,000 and occupied for a decade. While the hotel
building provided larger accommodations for the expanding bank, its site along South
Tryon Street was the main attraction. During the company's 100th anniversary celebration
in 1983, bank president Joe H. King declared that the move to South Tryon Street was a
key to its success. King stated, "Tryon Street is a financial center in this town, and this
corner is a prime location on Tryon, and we've grown dramatically in the last 25 years"
(Charlotte News March 3, 1983).
In the mid-1960s, the bank razed the Buford Hotel and in February 1967 moved into the
seven-story Home Federal Savings and Loan Building. As Charlotte grew in the 1970s and
1980s, the bank's assets rose sharply. During the 1970s Home Federal made 10,000 home
loans amounting to nearly $400,000,000, and loaned $140,000,000 to homebuilders and
contracting firms. By the 1980s, the bank ranked among the state's top five savings and
loan associations in total assets. In the late 1990s, First Charter Bank of Charlotte acquired
Home Federal Savings and Loan, and the bank's offices were relocated elsewhere on South
Tryon Street. In November 2000, the Home Federal Savings and Loan Building was
purchased by the Charlotte-based real estate developer, Byron, L.L.C. Plans are in
progress to renovate the former bank building for a variety of office and retail uses.
The completion of the Home Federal Savings and Loan Building in 1967 reflected not just
the growth of the bank but also the prominence of Charlotte, and South Tryon Street in
particular, as a financial hub. The city began emerging as the banking center of the
Carolinas in the early twentieth century when local businessmen who had grown rich
through textile manufacturing and real estate deals founded banks to diversify their
investments. Between 1897 and 1930 ten new banks opened in downtown Charlotte,
including a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1927. By the eve of the Great Depression
South Tryon Street was becoming the city's financial district, promoted by the Chamber of
Commerce as the "Wall Street of Charlotte." The street included First National Bank,
Merchants and Farmers Bank, Commercial National Bank, Independence Trust Company,
and the Federal Reserve. By the 1950s Charlotte had become the banking center of the
Southeastern United States, as banks expanded and merged to finance the region's
burgeoning manufacturing and wholesaling activities. By 1970 North Carolina National Bank
(now Bank of America) and First Union bank, both based on South Tryon Street, as well as
Wachovia and First Citizens banks, headquartered elsewhere but with prominent addresses
on South Tryon, ranked among the foremost financial institutions in the entire country
(Hanchett 1998: 186-187, 196-197, 225, 317).
Between the 1950s and early 1990s, this success spawned high-rise bank towers downtown.
In 1956, the 15-story Wachovia Building was completed on West Trade Street. The
concrete-clad tower remains, though the integrity of the building's interior has been lost.
In 1961, the 18-story NCNB Building (which survives though the base has been gutted and
remodeled) and the 20-story Cutter Building (now radically altered) were built facing each
other on the 200 block of South Tryon Street. In 1966, a front-page article in the Charlotte
Observer featured the 41-story Tryon Towers (now Wachovia Building) planned for the
corner of South Tryon and Second streets. Completed in 1969, the gleaming rectangular
tower, sheathed with glazed curtain walls, still dominates the south end of the financial
district.
A 1969 Charlotte Observer article entitled, "Downtown Charlotte: Banking City," observed
that "a portion of downtown Charlotte [centered on South Tryon Street] is becoming
dominated by bank and other financially oriented buildings. It's just a little larger than the
area between Fourth and Second streets between Church and College streets." By the early
1970s, College Street, one block east of South Tryon, contained the 32-story First Union
Building and the adjacent Southern National Bank Center (both now gone). South Tryon
included Home Federal Savings and Loan, the Wachovia Building, the Cutter and NCNB
towers, the 14-story Northwestern Bank (which also remains), and the 14-story Southern
National Bank Building (now gone). In 1974, North Carolina National Bank completed the
imposing, tinted-glass, 40-story NCNB (Bank of America) Plaza just north of Home Federal,
at the southeast corner of South Tryon and West Trade streets. During the 1980s, both
First Union and First Citizens also built new corporate towers downtown, so that modern
skyscrapers 20 to 40 stories high surrounded the seven-story Home Federal Savings and
Loan (Charlotte Observer December 9, 1966; July 27, 1969; November 11, 1973; August 10,
1979; Greensboro Daily News December 9, 1966; Hanchett 1990: 316; Woodard and Wyatt
2000: 35-36).
In the early 1990s, another NCNB tower (60 stories high) arose across the street from NCNB
Plaza, on the first block of North Tryon. When completed in 1993, the Art Deco-inspired
skyscraper was the tallest building in the Southeast. This corporate center continues to
tower over the center city, asserting Bank of America's position as one of the nation's most
powerful lenders, and Charlotte's rank among the nation's top financial centers, second
only to New York City (Charlotte Observer February 25, 1990; Hanchett 1990: 316).
The Home Federal Savings and Loan Building, erected in 1967, possesses local historical
importance because it illustrates Charlotte's growing significance as an urban place and
major financial center in the decades after World War II. The savings bank was founded in
Charlotte in 1883, and expanded rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century,
reflecting the city's emergence as a thriving regional metropolitan center and financial
hub. Completed in 1967, Home Federal's seven-story headquarters on South Tryon Street
expressed the bank's growing status as a lending institution in the heart of Charlotte's
booming financial district in the postwar decades.
Charlotte-based Home Federal Savings and Loan began in 1883 as the Mechanics Perpetual
Building and Loan Association. Samuel Wittkowsky, a Prussian immigrant of Jewish descent
who owned a successful general merchandise store in Charlotte, founded the business with
a group of local investors. Originally, the Association offered only home mortgages, but
over time it expanded lending services to homebuilders and contractors, and offered
saving accounts to individuals. In 1943 Mechanics Perpetual replaced its state charter with
a federal charter and changed its name to Home Federal Savings and Loan. During the
decades after World War II, Charlotte expanded at a remarkable pace, nearing a
population of 200,000 by 1960, and Home Federal and other financial institutions grew and
prospered. The assets of Home Federal increased from $3,000,000 in 1943 to $19,000,000
in 1955. Between 1950 and 1954, the savings bank made 5,700 loans to homebuyers and
building contractors. In 1962, Home Federal opened Charlotte's first savings and loan
branch, strategically located in the booming southeastern outskirts of the city, in the new
Park Road Shopping Center (Charlotte News March 3, 1983).
In 1955 Home Federal Savings and Loan relocated from the 100 block of East Fourth Street
to 139 South Tryon Street. At the time, the site was occupied by the Buford Hotel Building,
which the Association purchased for $400,000 and occupied for a decade. While the hotel
building provided larger accommodations for the expanding bank, its site along South
Tryon Street was the main attraction. During the company's 100th anniversary celebration
in 1983, bank president Joe H. King declared that the move to South Tryon Street was a
key to its success. King stated, "Tryon Street is a financial center in this town, and this
corner is a prime location on Tryon, and we've grown dramatically in the last 25 years"
(Charlotte News March 3, 1983).
In the mid-1960s, the bank razed the Buford Hotel and in February 1967 moved into the
seven-story Home Federal Savings and Loan Building. As Charlotte grew in the 1970s and
1980s, the bank's assets rose sharply. During the 1970s Home Federal made 10,000 home
loans amounting to nearly $400,000,000, and loaned $140,000,000 to homebuilders and
contracting firms. By the 1980s, the bank ranked among the state's top five savings and
loan associations in total assets. In the late 1990s, First Charter Bank of Charlotte acquired
Home Federal Savings and Loan, and the bank's offices were relocated elsewhere on South
Tryon Street. In November 2000, the Home Federal Savings and Loan Building was
purchased by the Charlotte-based real estate developer, Byron, L.L.C. Plans are in
progress to renovate the former bank building for a variety of office and retail uses.
The completion of the Home Federal Savings and Loan Building in 1967 reflected not just
the growth of the bank but also the prominence of Charlotte, and South Tryon Street in
particular, as a financial hub. The city began emerging as the banking center of the
Carolinas in the early twentieth century when local businessmen who had grown rich
through textile manufacturing and real estate deals founded banks to diversify their
investments. Between 1897 and 1930 ten new banks opened in downtown Charlotte,
including a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1927. By the eve of the Great Depression
South Tryon Street was becoming the city's financial district, promoted by the Chamber of
Commerce as the "Wall Street of Charlotte." The street included First National Bank,
Merchants and Farmers Bank, Commercial National Bank, Independence Trust Company,
and the Federal Reserve. By the 1950s Charlotte had become the banking center of the
Southeastern United States, as banks expanded and merged to finance the region's
burgeoning manufacturing and wholesaling activities. By 1970 North Carolina National Bank
(now Bank of America) and First Union bank, both based on South Tryon Street, as well as
Wachovia and First Citizens banks, headquartered elsewhere but with prominent addresses
on South Tryon, ranked among the foremost financial institutions in the entire country
(Hanchett 1998: 186-187, 196-197, 225, 317).
Between the 1950s and early 1990s, this success spawned high-rise bank towers downtown.
In 1956, the 15-story Wachovia Building was completed on West Trade Street. The
concrete-clad tower remains, though the integrity of the building's interior has been lost.
In 1961, the 18-story NCNB Building (which survives though the base has been gutted and
remodeled) and the 20-story Cutter Building (now radically altered) were built facing each
other on the 200 block of South Tryon Street. In 1966, a front-page article in the Charlotte
Observer featured the 41-story Tryon Towers (now Wachovia Building) planned for the
corner of South Tryon and Second streets. Completed in 1969, the gleaming rectangular
tower, sheathed with glazed curtain walls, still dominates the south end of the financial
district.
A 1969 Charlotte Observer article entitled, "Downtown Charlotte: Banking City," observed
that "a portion of downtown Charlotte [centered on South Tryon Street] is becoming
dominated by bank and other financially oriented buildings. It's just a little larger than the
area between Fourth and Second streets between Church and College streets." By the early
1970s, College Street, one block east of South Tryon, contained the 32-story First Union
Building and the adjacent Southern National Bank Center (both now gone). South Tryon
included Home Federal Savings and Loan, the Wachovia Building, the Cutter and NCNB
towers, the 14-story Northwestern Bank (which also remains), and the 14-story Southern
National Bank Building (now gone). In 1974, North Carolina National Bank completed the
imposing, tinted-glass, 40-story NCNB (Bank of America) Plaza just north of Home Federal,
at the southeast corner of South Tryon and West Trade streets. During the 1980s, both
First Union and First Citizens also built new corporate towers downtown, so that modern
skyscrapers 20 to 40 stories high surrounded the seven-story Home Federal Savings and
Loan (Charlotte Observer December 9, 1966; July 27, 1969; November 11, 1973; August 10,
1979; Greensboro Daily News December 9, 1966; Hanchett 1990: 316; Woodard and Wyatt
2000: 35-36).
In the early 1990s, another NCNB tower (60 stories high) arose across the street from NCNB
Plaza, on the first block of North Tryon. When completed in 1993, the Art Deco-inspired
skyscraper was the tallest building in the Southeast. This corporate center continues to
tower over the center city, asserting Bank of America's position as one of the nation's most
powerful lenders, and Charlotte's rank among the nation's top financial centers, second
only to New York City (Charlotte Observer February 25, 1990; Hanchett 1990: 316).
