Look for a stately three-story building right on the corner, covered in pale, blocky terracotta tiles, with five gigantic arched windows stretching almost the full height of the ground floor-just gaze across the street and you can’t miss those towering, elegant arches facing 6th Avenue.
Now picture yourself here back in the roaring 1920s, when jazz melodies floated on the breeze and Portlanders wore their finest hats just to run errands. Standing before you is the Bank of California Building, once the crown jewel of downtown banking and now a survivor of change, time, and more than a few sign swaps. Imagine the excitement as this Italianate palazzo-style beauty-designed by none other than the famous A. E. Doyle-rose from the ground in 1925. Doyle, with help from his globe-trotting chief designer Charles K. Greene, channelled the grandeur of ancient Greco-Roman palaces into a Portland block, giving the city a dash of Renaissance flair.
Originally, this address was hopping as a bank since 1882, and after a few mergers, the Bank of California set up shop here, replacing its old digs at Third and Stark. As you stand under those 28-foot arched windows, notice the ornate bronze lamps flanking the entrance-think of them as Portland’s fanciest porch lights, waiting to welcome bankers, businessfolk, and maybe even a few secretive types carrying sacks of cash. The doors are framed with bronze, heavy and gleaming, as if daring you to try lifting that vault door inside.
Step back and scan up to the roof: those red clay tiles and the cast terracotta cornices almost make you want to shout “Ciao!” and break out a Vespa. The third floor hides behind a hipped roof, windowless and mysterious, once reserved for possible future expansion. In the heart of this marble-clad palace, you’d find a jaw-dropping, two-story banking hall with a ceiling soaring 36 feet above your head. The marble counter, now long gone, once gleamed underneath beams decorated to dazzle customers with every deposit or withdrawal.
Here’s a fun twist: the building never really stood still, constantly donning new “hats” (or at least new signs). With every change of owner-from Bank of California to Security Bank of Oregon, Durham & Bates insurance, and even a stock brokerage-fresh lettering graced the façade out front. You might say this building has had more name tags than a conference networking table.
Let’s talk about neighbors. At first, the northern wall butted right up against the old Fenton Building. When the Fenton came down in 1971, our bank’s plain north wall was suddenly blushing in public! Fortunately, it got a stylish terracotta makeover. Imagine the clatter of construction as the northern wall was spruced up. For a while, there was even a drive-up window-banking, fast-food style-until it disappeared along with the last bank tellers in the 1970s.
Outside, you’re at the pulse of the city. Buses and, since 2009, the MAX light rail, hum and flash past the grand arches. Picture the sidewalk before you, at one point just plain cement, later bricked and shaded by street trees. An impressive bronze sculpture, Talos No. 2, has now staked out the corner, watching commuters and visitors alike.
During its lifetime, the building saw plenty of high drama-moving from marble floors to boardrooms, from echoing banking halls to modern offices. Even as its owners changed, its mighty doors and historic aura stayed firm. After a big renovation in 2000 by Bidwell & Company, and a quick stint as a brokerage headquarters, this landmark was reborn yet again. By 2008, it was recognized as the Three Kings Building, its latest royal reincarnation.
And, oh, if these old marble floors could talk, they’d whisper about vaults filled with fortunes, nervous hopefuls clenching loan papers, and the relentless march of progress outside these storied arches. So, as you stand here, let your imagination leap through time-from hatted bankers of the Jazz Age to the quick-stepping commuters of today-because this building has seen it all, and keeps watching, five giant windows at a time.
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