First National Bank of Houlton


The First National Bank of Houlton is a historic bank building on Market Square in the center of Houlton, Maine. Built in 1907, it is an excellent local example of a neo-Greek Revival commercial building. It was one of the last commissions completed by Lewiston architect George M. Coombs. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 2020, the bank changed its location after staying in its location for 113 years.

Description and history

The First National Bank of Houlton building is set in a row of otherwise brick buildings on the north side of Market Square, the heart of Houlton's central business district. Sharing party walls with the neighboring buildings, it has a granite facade, prominently distinguished by a pair of pilasters at the corners, and a pair of Doric columns in the center. These support a lintel with an overhanging bracketed cornice, which is topped by four equidistant blocks separated by balustrades with metal balusters. The facade behind the columns is organized into three bays, the left two having windows with decorative metal elements between the first and second levels. The entrance is in the rightmost bay, also topped by decorative metalwork. It also has a sheltering arched marquee in which decorative metalwork detailing is repeated.
The building was designed by Lewiston architect George M. Coombs and completed in 1907. It was one of Coombs' last commissions, and forms a significant and dignified part of the late-19th-century commercial landscape of Market Square.