The United States National Bank Building in downtown Portland, Oregon, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by famed Portland architect A. E. Doyle in a Roman classical style, the four-story building's first section, facing Sixth Avenue, was completed and opened in 1917. An extension westward to Broadway, approximately doubling its size, was constructed in 1925. Since then the building has occupied one-half of a city block. It features a four-story-high colonnade of Corinthian order columns at its eastern end, originally the principal façade, and extensive use of glazed terracotta. The interior is also decorated extensively with highly textured materials. The building was constructed for the United States National Bank of Portland (USNB), which ultimately became part of U.S. Bancorp, whose retail banking division operates as U.S. Bank. In 2017, 100 years after the building's opening, it continues to serve as the bank's main Portland branch.HistoryThe United States National Bank of Portland, the predecessor of present-day U.S. Bancorp, was established in Portland in 1890, opening for business in February 1891. During the following three decades, the bank experienced significant growth. It weathered the Panic of 1893 better than many of its competitors, and later acquired some of the competing Portland banks, including the Ainsworth National Bank (in 1902), the Wells Fargo Bank (in 1905), and the Lumbermen's National Bank (in 1917). With the 1902 acquisition, U.S. National Bank moved its headquarters into a larger space formerly occupied by Ainsworth National, in the Ainsworth Building, then located at S.W. Third and Stark streets in downtown Portland. By the 1910s, the bank had outgrown its space. The firm purchased a quarter-block of land at the northwest corner of Sixth and Stark streets in early 1916 and hired Portland architect A. E. Doyle to design a new, dedicated headquarters building.
