Architectural+Digest+Article

Beverly Cuthrell ECE WD1 17, October 2010 Architectural Digest Article

The Parthenon and Old Shawneetown Bank

I am comparing the Parthenon building and the Old Shawneetown Bank building. Both of these unique building have Doric Columns. Doric Columns were developed in Greece and Rome. Although these buildings have different purposes, locations,and times built. The Parthenon is a building located in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon Began its construction in 447 BC. As the Parthenon was still under construction, it was burned by Persians. The building was finally finished in 432 BC. The building foundations were made out of limestone and the Doric columns were made out of Pentelic Marble. This building was dedicated to Athena and it wasn’t just dedicated to her it was made to shelter the monumental statue of her. This Building has eight columns on the front of the building and it has seven-teen columns on the sides of the building. The Parthenon is almost impossible to create one alike, this building was very expensive. The cost was four hundred sixty-nine silver talents. The Old Shawneetown Bank is a more modern building. The building was made to look like Greek temples. The five Doric columns in the front are made out of sandstone. The cost of theShawneetown bank was very expensive in this time period, it was eighty thousand dollars. Thebuilding was built in 1839-1841.This building housed the first bank in Illinois. The building can stillbe seen today in Shawneetown, Illinois. The Shawneetown opened in 1841 and the bank could printout and issue their own paper money. This paper money was called a bank note. The bank was builtwith a vault to hold everyone’s gold and silver specie. During the American civil war, president Lincolnsigned legislation that banned small banks from printing money and they couldn’t no longer issue banknotes. A severe flood came in from the Ohio River. It was spring of 1937. The vault was closed. Thebank was bought in 1942 by the state of Illinois. It is now owned by the Illinois Historic PreservationAgency. Now you see that both of these buildings have the same type of columns but they have a lot of other things very different from each other. Greek columns are unique. You will see Doriccolumns on many buildings, they might be on the Parthenon and they might be on a Bank inShawneetown, Illinois.