As a counterpoint to the Merchants Bank across the street, the Hospital Trust Co Building also employs Italian Renaissance inspired forms, but here they have been applied to a tall, steel-frame building, designed by New York architects York and Sawyer, well known for their banks. Constructed to house the institution founded in 1867 specifically to finance Rhode Island Hospital, the building projects a strong look of solidity and conservatism, an apt image for New England’s first trust company and repository for assets of many of Providence’s old-money families. The well-detailed banking hall in the 1917 section was designated in 2001 for eventual use as a library for Rhode Island School of Design.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
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