The Railroad and Bank Building at 176 E. 5th Street in St. Paul, Minnesota, renamed Great Northern Building in 2019, was the largest office building in the Upper Midwest from its completion in 1914 until 1973. For most of its existence, it was the headquarters of the business empire created by 19th century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill. The building is the work of architect Charles Sumner Frost and is a contributing property of the St. Paul's Lowertown Historic District. After the decline of the railroads in the United States, the building has been used as leased office space with some retail operations on the lower floors.
Background
Railroad magnate James J. Hill was the majority owner of the Great Northern Railway since he and a group of investors purchased the predecessor company in the late 1870s. Hill took control of the Northern Pacific Railway, a competing line, around 1900. Hill and J. P. Morgan, tried to merge the two railroads in 1895 and again in the early 1900s, into the Northern Securities Company railroad trust. Both attempts were blocked by the Supreme Court after the U.S. Justice Department invoked the Sherman Antitrust Act. Hill took control of the First National Bank and Northwest Trust Company around 1912.
Hill sought to build a new headquarters building for his empire around this time, to replace the Great Northern Building at 300 Wall Street in St. Paul. The building was constructed from 1914 to 1916, at a cost of $4 million, as the corporate headquarters of the three separate companies he controlled. Due to the anti-trust concerns and the need to keep day-to-day operations independent, the building was designed to appear and generally function as a separate structure for each of the three tenants. The three companies individually owned their section of the building; solid walls divided the building into sections, each with a private entrance and set of elevators – Great Northern on 4th Street, Northern Pacific on 5th Street, and the First National Bank and Northwest Trust on Jackson Street. When constructed, a single door separated the presidential offices of the two railroads on the tenth floor. In light of anti-trust concerns, this was the only connection within the building and the door was normally locked with the keys tightly controlled. Routine communication was either by telephone or by sending written documents through a network of pneumatic tubes that allowed items to reach any place in the building within ten seconds.
A building construction committee was formed with a representative from each company, the Northern Pacific chief engineer William L. Darling, the Great Northern's assistant to the president Ralph Budd, and First National Bank's president Everett H. Baily. Charles Sumner Frost, who was also responsible for two other significant downtown buildings, Saint Paul Union Depot and The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Office Building, was chosen to be the project architect. It was built on the site of the Davidson Block (1880), the Economy Hotel, and several other small buildings.
Architecture
The Classical Revival building has a steel frame with reinforced concrete floors and a masonry exterior. The first three stories are of sandstone, the fourth of terra cotta and the remaining of brick. The building is topped with a classical cornice. The north, west, and south facades are almost identical but due the slope of the lot, the east side shows an additional floor. The entrances are recessed in antis with Ionic columns made from sandstone; similar pilasters are used around the building on the first three floors.
The foundation was constructed to be able to support an additional four floors. The building was reported to contain . It has a steel frame and concrete floor slabs. Finish materials include brick, marble, and terra cotta. Construction started in February 1914 with the demolition of the existing buildings on the site, and was completed by December 1, 1915. The project engineer was Toltz Engineering Co. and the builder was Grant Smith, both of St. Paul. Materials for the building were provided by Joe Shiely Sr as seen in the photo.
The building included a bungalow-style cottage on the roof that included a room for board meetings and two bedrooms where out-of-town board members could stay. The bank had a retail banking operation on the first floor in the center of the building in an atrium with a height of . The open area above the central interior courtyard provided daylight and ventilation to the inside offices on the higher floors.