Allentown National Bank, also known as Meridian Bank, is a historic bank building located at Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1905, and is a large eight-story, steel frame and masonry-clad building in the Beaux-Arts style. The building was abandoned in the 1990s, however in the early 2000s, it was re-developed into apartments for independent living senior citizens. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.HistoryAllentown architects Jacoby, Weishampel & Biggin designed the building in a Beaux Arts style. Today, it remains the last commercial structure downtown built in the Central business district of Allentown before 1920 that stands in its original condition.Construction of the building started on 12 August 1903. Its steel framework was finished the following 7 May. The steel came from Guerber Engineering of west Bethlehem. The stonework was done by Carlucci Stone Co. of Scranton. The concrete ceilings were installed by Roebling Construction Co., founded by the same Roebling family that built the Brooklyn Bridge. One worker, Fred Mummey, died in the construction of the eight-story structure. He was knocked from a high steel beam on 4 February 1904, by the boom of a swinging derrick. It opened as Allentown Bank, on 15 March 1905.When opened, it had a modern telephone exchange was tied in with both the Lehigh and Consolidated phone systems, the region's two phone companies. And the two "smoothly running hydraulic elevators" were said to be the ultimate in safety. The building has "A spacious dome 32 feet in height supported by 6 onyx columns surmounts the rotunda," noted a local newspaper at the time. The rotunda is not visible from the street. "The carving and molding is the work of Herman Merkel, a noted local sculptor.
