Location Information
(for the Bank of Gulfport)
Name:Bank of Gulfport [Hancock Bank]
Address:2500 14th Street
City/County:Gulfport, Harrison County
Architectural Information
Construction Date:1928
Architectural Styles(s):Neoclassical
No. of Stories:8
Registration Information
NR District Name:Gulfport Harbor Square Commercial (2011)
    NR Status:Contributing
    Element No.:25
Context/Comments
Designed by architect N.W. Overstreet of Jackson, this eight-story office building was completed in 1928 for the Bank of Gulfport. That bank failed not long after the Crash of 1929, and in 1932 the bulding became the location of the Gulfport offices of Hancock Bank.

This building was originally listed on the National Register on 13 August 1985 as element #26 in the (old) Harbor Square Historic District. Because that historic district was severely ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the old district was superseded by the (new) Gulfport Harbor Square Commercial Historic District, which was placed on the National Register on 25 October 2011. The building is now listed as element #25 in the Gulfport Harbor Square Commercial Historic District.

It is included in "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p. 342, GC14).
Brief Description
Eight story, Neoclassical, brick and ashlar block office building with a flat roof behind a projecting cast stone cornice. Below the cornice is a cast stone string course with decorative detailing and on the main facade above the string course is a cast stone shield surrounded by a braided wreath. The first two stories of the building are covered in ashlar blocks on a granite water table and above that the building is sided in brick. The entrance to the building is recessed under a two-story opening supported by Roman Doric columns and square pilasters with capitals and bases. The recessed entrance has a two-story window wall with the double-leaf entry doors surrounded by cast stone panels. The windows flanking the door are plate glass in metal frames with a grid pattern and diagonal divisions. Outside of the recessed entrance the first and second floors have a single bay (W-Paired) to each side of the opening with the first floor having 1/1 metal single hung sash windows and casement window on the second floor matching the window division pattern of the windows that flank the entry door. Floors three to six have five-bays (W-Paired, W, D, W, W-Paired) with 1/1 metal single hung sash windows. The seventh and eighth floor each have five-bays (W-Paired, W, W, W, W-Paired) and the seventh floor has a balcony supported by cast stone brackets that has a cast stone balustrade. The balcony is framed in cast stone detailing in a quoin pattern and cast stone pilasters between the windows that open to the balcony. The quoining and pilasters extend to the eighth floor and terminate in arches over each of the three windows. In between the pilasters that extend from the seventh to the eighth floor are cast stone panels, each with a shield, between the windows on each floor. On the seventh and eighth floors the paired windows are 1/1 metal single hung sash and the single windows are paired casement windows with eight divisions each. The casement windows on the eighth floor have an arched transom divided vertically into five divisions.