First National Bank
The First National Bank Building has anchored one corner of downtown Ventura’s heart at Main and California Street since 1926. The building was a dream of Felix Ewing, a Superior Court Judge and innovative banker who created the first Savings and Loan bank department in Ventura County. It opened four months after his death. Architect H. H. Winner designed the structure in a mixture of Renaissance Revival and Spanish Revival influences. The first floor lobby has imported French Napoleon marble. The exterior is clad in rare terra cotta tiles like the Ventura City Hall. It was the first building in Ventura to have an elevator! It is locally called the Gardner Building because Erle Stanley Gardner of the law firm Sheridan, Orr, Gardner and Drapeau wrote the first of many Perry Mason novels in the offices the firm took on the 3rd floor in the 1920s.
Ventura, Ventura County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt