Hankou Citibank Building

Hankou Citibank Building

The Hankou Citibank Building is a cultural relic protection unit of Hubei Province.

Hankou Citibank Building

Located at No. 97 Yanjiang Avenue, Hankou, Wuhan. The building of the Hankou branch of the American Citibank was built in 1921. Its services included deposits, loans, savings, bills for collection, international exchange, and it also issued banknotes worth 600,000 yuan in Hankou. It ceased operations in 1950. The former site is a five-story granite structure. The north and east facades feature rows of grand columns forming colonnades, with Ionic volute capitals, while the south and west sides have windows directly set into the walls, exhibiting an ancient Greek architectural style. The second floor once housed the office of the Standard Oil Company of New York in Hankou.

The designer was American architect Henry Murphy. The building has five floors above ground, standing 29.5 meters tall, with a reinforced concrete structure. It covers an area of 910 square meters and has a floor space of 6,153 square meters. The architectural style is a simplified form of classicism, featuring a tripartite façade composition. Floors 2 to 4 form the middle section, with eight columns running through all three floors. The column capitals are adorned with Ionic volutes, and a horizontal open-air corridor is spanned with decorative metal railings, giving it a truly luxurious and imposing appearance.

This distant building, weathered by war, casts a lonely shadow under the blazing sun. Its stone base is cold and stern, as if buried deep in memory. From the outside to the inside, it remains silent and still — we may never be able to step inside.

Source: Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units