Citizens Savings & Loan Association
700 Berkshire Boulevard
East Alton, IL - Metro East
Architect: Alvin K. Stolze for Keeney & Stolze, 1964¹

A round bank building, set into the cut-out of a hillside, with a vertical slab accented by stylized stainless steel lettering, wrapped in glass block and accessed from the street corner by its own private suspension bridge. That description alone would make this Mid-Century bank a standout. But for Citizens Savings and Loan (later the Citizens Professional Building), this is only the beginning. The building is loaded up, inside and out, with spectacular 1960s detailing.

The facade is divided into vertical segments. Most are infilled with glass block, mostly colorless translucent, flecked with red and yellow colored blocks (unfortunately painted black some time after 2000².)

If you had the good fortune to be arriving from the corner of Berkshire and Wood River during the bank's heyday, you would cross the suspension bridge, passing over (according to the original plans) 6,000 square feet of reflecting pools with fountains.

You would open a pair of doors adorned with 60s fab angled door handles, and arrive in this completely psychadelic vestibule. Tinted translucent plastic is punctuated by metal rings, skewed from the orthogonal and filled with colored tint.

Inside, the main banking room was a round space, with light fixtures radiating from the center of the ceiling.

You might also have arrived from the rear parking lot, in which case your journey took you up this fantastic stairwell.

A second stairwell is entered from the ground level on the west side.

Beautiful detailing abounds in this building, and extends from the stairwells to the bathroom labels, the lighting fixtures, even the exit signs. The basement level mini-kitchen is fitted out with metal panel cabinets in colors reminiscent of the glass block on the facade.

Citizens Saving & Loan was established in 1938, and constructed this building in 1964-1965. In 1988, the bank was acquired by Lemont Savings, which moved out by 1990 and subsequently failed in 1994. The building became the Citizens Professional Building, hosting various office spaces. It has been vacant since at least 2008.

Architect Alvin Stolze was born in 1926, graduated from University of Notre Dame and practiced for 40 years before retiring in 1985. He passed away in 1999.³