| Designed by architect Wyatt C. Hedrick of Fort Worth, Texas, the original, western part of this building was built in 1929 for the Merchants Bank and Trust Company (which moved to this building from their old location at the southwest corner of Capitol Street and State Street). After Merchants Bank went out of business in 1933, the building was leased and subsequently purchased by the Deposit Guaranty Bank. The eastern part of the building, which has a somewhat simpler version of the same design vocabulary, was designed by R.W. Naef and built in 1957-58. A new 22-story building, Deposit Guaranty Plaza (049-JAC-0963.2), was built adjacent to this building in 1975. On 1 September 1998 Deposit Guaranty became part of First American National Bank. On 31 December 1999 First American became part of AmSouth Bank. On 4 November 2006 AmSouth became part of Regions Bank (headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama). This building is listed as a contributing element (#1) in the Smith Park Architectural District Boundary Increase No. 3, which was added to the National Register on 25 July 2014. The building is included in "Jackson Landmarks" (1982) (pp. 56-57, as Deposit Guaranty National Bank Building), "Jackson (Images of America)" (1998) (p. 18), and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p. 248, at the end of the listing for the Standard Life Building, JM29). |