In the early 20th century, this was one of two banks anchoring the busy Lorin business district’s streetcar intersection. The building remained a bank until the 1980s. Its architecture combines a restrained Mission Revival façade with Beaux-Arts classical details and a modified Renaissance tempietto corner entrance. These features evoke a serious, solid edifice typical of financial institutions of that time.

Howard is noted for his many classical buildings on the University of California campus in Berkeley. In this building he used reinforced concrete and other fireproofing techniques as a response to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.